SlugTerra University
by dicarten-ice
Summary: Blakk's been gone for 25 years, and in his absence, SlugTerra University (SU) was built. It's a school for youths to learn in safety. How will Jacob Shane fare here, with so many new people and things? What kind of trouble will he become involved in? This is my first fanfic, so be patient with me. EliXTrixie
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1—Leaving Home

This takes place after season 3 ends, assuming Blakk dies.

"Are you sure you'll be okay out there?" Trixie, my adopted mom, asked me as I strapped my last bag of stuff to the back of my Wolf Mecha, STRY-D3R. I just call him Stryder, though.

"I'll be fine," I assured her.

"Are you sure? You've never been out of this cavern by yourself," she said. "Maybe I should go with you…"

"I told you, I'll be fine…Mom," I said. Trixie and Eli Shane may have been my adopted parents for fourteen years, since I was only a year old, but I'm still hesitant about calling them 'Mom' and 'Dad'. I even kept my last name, Taylor, but made it into my middle name. My full name is 'Jacob Taylor Shane'.

Eli insists that I just call him 'Eli', but Trixie likes it more when I call her 'Mom'. "Besides, I'll have Yang and Speedy to help me out," I added, nodding to the Negashade slug on my head, which was covered in a dark blue beanie, and a Speedstinger slug on my shoulder.

Eli gave me Yang for my 15th birthday because of my strong connection with him. I found Speedy ten years ago, watching me as I chased Eli and Trixie's slugs around the exterior of the house. I saw him and ran at him, probably scaring him at first before realizing I wanted to play. We soon became inseparable friends.

"Don't worry, Trixie," Eli added, walking up to us. "Jacob will be fine. Besides, Burpy will go with him to make sure he doesn't get lost," he added, referring to his Infernus slug. Burpy's basically the boss of the slugs in Eli's team, making sure they're always in good condition.

"Thanks, Eli," I told him, hugging him in the tightest squeeze I could manage. "Thank you for enrolling me into SU, too," I added. SlugTerra University (SU) is the only large school in all 99 Caverns of SlugTerra. It's open for everyone with a very low entrance fee that's required every year. It pays for a room in one of the spacious residential halls, the classes themselves, Mecha parking, class supplies and food for the entire school year.

I was right about to hug Trixie when we heard the loud roar of a familiar Mecha approaching.

"SURPRISE!" Kord yelled as he rode toward on his Mecha, WY-8. "I decided to meet you guys here and escort Jacob to SU."

"Hey, there, Kord," I said, fist-bumping him.

"That's 'Professor Zane' or 'Mr. Zane' now," he joked.

"Not yet," I replied. "Technically, the semester hasn't begun, and we aren't even at SU yet, so you're still 'Kord' to me. Besides, I doubt I could ever call you anything else."

"Good point, kid," he said. "So, are you ready to get going yet?"

"Give me a minute," I told him. I hugged Trixie and Eli one more time before climbing onto Stryder's back and starting the Mecha.

"Bye!" I yelled over my shoulder as we set off.

"Wait!" Eli yelled, loading his blaster. "Don't forget Burpy!" He pulled the trigger and launched the Infernus slug at me. He easily caught up with us and changed from velocimorph to protoform just in time to land on Stryder's head without catching anything on fire, which he did once on accident.

"You ready to figure out how fast I built your Mecha to go?" Kord asked me. He built me Stryder as a present for my 13th and 14th birthdays.

"Let's go," I replied, hitting the throttle. Soon we were at full speed, the rest of the world seeming to go by in a blur. Five minutes later we were paused at the edge of the cavern.

"What's wrong, kid?" Kord asked me when he saw my hesitation.

"Ever since Eli and Trixie adopted me, I have never left this cavern without them," I told him. "It's just…so strange."

"You'll be fine," he assured me. "Now, let's get a move on. I want to make sure you get yourself moved into your new dorm room on time."

I paused a second longer before nodding and hitting the throttle, accelerating again. We raced each other through two more caverns, Burpy pointing me in the right direction whenever I began to go off-course.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2—SlugTerra University

Thanks everyone for the reviews so far. I hope to start hurrying things along soon.

"You let me win!" I accused Kord when we arrived in Bullseye Cavern, where SU is located. Even though the cavern died back in the time of Dr. Blakk, the Shane Gang managed to bring it back to life with a large group of Fandangos and other slugs. Now, it's a thriving cavern. The University brings in a lot of business.

"I did not!" he shouted as he approached.

"Yes, you did," I said. "I saw you let off on the throttle."

"Just enjoy your victory," he laughed. "Now, let's get you registered. Oh, and you might want to make sure Burpy goes back home."

Burpy chirped.

"He wants to stay here to make sure I get moved in alright," I told him. Because of all the time I spent with slugs when the Gang had to deal with problems in other caverns, I learned how to understand their language, though the translations can be a bit rough at times.

Kord led me to a long row of tables, where hundreds of kids around my age were waiting to register. I must've seen at least twenty kinds of Mechas as we made our way through the crowd to a registration desk that had just finished with a student.

"Hello, Professor Kord," the guy sitting at the desk said merrily. "What brings you here?"

"I'm helping Jacob here move himself in," Kord said, patting me on the back and almost knocking me off my Mecha.

I climbed off Stryder's back and entered my name into a data pad the person handed to me. Soon after I finished typing a match popped up. The pad scanned my hand to match up the fingerprints to the ones Eli provided and, when it had confirmed my identity, the man took the pad back from me.

"Do you have your own data pad?" he asked me, seemingly unfazed by my last name.

"I've got Holo-Glasses," I told him, pointing to the glasses I was wearing. I don't need them, but they contained my Holo-Glasses, which projects the computer screen onto the lens.

He handed me a pass card. "This is your room key and student identification. You need it in order to receive meals, enter your room and borrow University equipment. Welcome to SlugTerra University, Jacob Shane," he told me, reading my name off the screen of his data pad.

"Thank you," I replied, sliding the card into one of my pockets.

"Your dorm room is located in Shane Hall," he told me, pointing to one of the smaller residence halls, in front of which is a statue of Eli Shane.

"Did Eli do anything special to get me into his hall?" I asked Kord as we rode over to it.

"He just told the residence director that you're his son. The director did the rest," Kord told me.

It took us ten minutes to get through the large crowd of students before finally arriving at the Mecha parking area for the hall.

"I'll grab those," Kord told me, grabbing my heaviest boxes once we were parked.

"Thanks, Kord," I replied, grabbing the rest of my things.

We walked inside the hall and walked up to a desk, where I had Speedy grab my student I.D. to show the person there because of my loaded arms.

"First floor, west wing," she told us.

"Thanks, Cynthia," Kord replied. We walked through the halls and had to search for a minute before finding my room, which was at the end of the hall.

"Why does this building look deserted?" I asked Kord.

"Not as many students live in this hall, so it's almost never crowded," Kord explained. I set down my bags and pulled out my I.D. to slide it through the card reader on the door.

Once the door accepted the card it popped open. I slid my card back into my pocket and made sure my blaster wasn't poking me in the side as I picked up my boxes and bags again.

"Anybody here?" I asked tentatively as we entered. Eli said that I would have a roommate, and I was wondering where he was.

"Looks like he's not here yet," Kord commented. "His bed's not set up yet."

"Might as well wait for him to arrive before we start splitting everything," I said. "Just set those boxes on the floor."

He set the boxes on the floor with a loud _thunk!_ and stretched his back.

"What did you have in there?" he asked me. "Rocks?"

"Clothes, books, and more," I replied, setting down my things.

"Are you my room partner?" a voice asked by the open doorway.

We spun around to see a boy my age, dressed in light-colored, casual clothing. There was a Sand Angler slug on his shoulder, waving at us as a man behind them set down a couple boxes.

"Yeah, I am," I replied, moving my bags to the side.

Once he had all his things in the room I introduced myself.

"Hi. I'm Jacob, Jacob Taylor," I told him. "You can just call me Jake, though." I didn't want anybody knowing I'm a Shane, but that'll change once a professor checks attendance.

"Nice to meet you. Name's Lucas Jones, but you can call me Luke," he replied. The Sand Angler hopped on his hand. "This is Dune, my best friend."

"Nice to meet you, too." I introduced my slugs to him.

"Which side of the room do you want?" I asked him. The room was a rectangle with the door located in the middle, so it was impossible to get more than the other. There was a window positioned above each bed and another, wider window above the dressers, which were located next to each other.

"I'll take this side," Luke replied, tossing a bag onto the bed on the left.

"Okay," I said. I moved all my things to the right side of the room and began unpacking things, starting with my clothes as Kord pulled a stack of books out of the heaviest box and set them on a shelf above my desk.

"What do you plan to focus your studies on here?" Kord asked Luke.

"I plan to split my focus between Mecha Engineering and Slugslinging," he said.

"Looks like you'll be taking some of my courses, then," Kord said, holding out his hand. "I'm Professor Kord Zane, head of the Department of Mecha Engineering."

"Nice to meet you, Professor," Luke said, shaking his hand. "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you helping Jake move in? Do the professors always do this with students?"

"Oh, I'm just a family friend," Kord explained. "I'm helping him move in. Family's really busy right now, so they asked me to help."

That was the story. I didn't want anybody know that the Shanes are my adopted parents because of the way they would most likely treat me, but the story will most likely be ruined the first time Eli and Trixie visit me at the University.

"Oh. Okay."

I finished moving myself and packed everything away in dressers and desks before setting out some slug food for my slugs and Burpy.

"Who's that?" Luke asked me, pointing to Burpy.

"That's my dad's slug," I replied. "He sent it to make sure I moved in alright and didn't have any problems."

"I've never seen a slug like this before except…" he said, looking in the direction of the statue of Eli, on which Burpy was also perfectly carved, down to the smallest detail.

"Where did you find Dune?" I asked Luke, trying to change the subject.

"We were traveling through Rock Lock Cavern when we found him wandering around," Luke explained. "That Infernus, is he…?"

"Is he what?"

"Is that Eli Shane's slug?" he asked, eyes widening as his father watched us.

"I told you, it's my dad's slug," I replied.

"If that's your…then that means…" he mumbled. "Y-you're Eli Shane's son?"

"Adopted son, technically. My last name's actually Shane," I said, giving up the story.

His jaw dropped.

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed, setting up some pictures of me with my adopted parents, me with a bunch of slugs and a faded photo of me with my real parents.

"Will you be alright here?" Luke's father asked him. He looked very unhappy.

"Yeah, Dad. I'll be fine," Luke replied, recovering from shock. He hugged his father before he set off, a small Thugglet slug peaking out from his collar.

"Is that a Thugglet slug?" I asked Luke's dad.

"Yeah, it is," he replied. Burpy looked over at it and showed a few moments hesitation, as if remembering something, before jumping up and down repeatedly, making noises.

"What's he trying to say?" Kord asked me.

"The slug's name," I replied. "Its…" It took me a few seconds to figure it out due to the speed he was talking. "Loki?"

"Loki?" Kord demanded. "Are you sure it's Loki?"

Burpy nodded vigorously, growling at the Thugglet slug.

"He's sure," I replied. "Why?"

Kord spun toward Luke's dad, reaching for his blaster.

"Long time no see, Twist," Kord said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3—Twist

Again, thanks for all the great reviews from everyone. I've had these chapters written for a while, but i may try to spread the post dates out more.

"Kord, don't do anything rash," Luke's dad, apparently named 'Twist', said. "Besides, my real name's 'John Jones'."

"Where have you been since Blakk fell?" Kord demanded.

The man turned around and Loki peaked his head out again to look at us.

"Listen," he said, lifting his hands. "When Blakk fell, I ran away. I thought my actions over, and realized that everything I did was wrong. I managed to find somebody with a Boon Doc to heal Loki and return him to normal. I knew that you would never trust me again, though, so I had Loki change my appearance so that I could blend in with other people. I started a new life with my real name. I've _changed_, Kord."

"Wait, what's going on?" Luke and I asked at the same time.

"Did Eli explain the story of Twist to you?" Kord asked me.

"Yeah," I replied. "He became part of the Shane Gang but betrayed you guys to Blakk."

"I told you, I've changed," Twist said. Or would it be John? Whatever, let's get back to the story. "I found a woman I love, got married, and had a kid I love more than anything. I've changed my ways. Please believe me, Kord."

Kord hesitated a second before putting his blaster away. I hadn't even realized he had it out and loaded.

"I'm sorry about the trouble," Kord apologized. "I believe you, Twist, I mean, John. You sincerely look sorry. I hope you realize that Eli will find out about this eventually, though, right?"

"Yes, I realize that," John said. "Thank for giving me another chance after everything I did to you guys."

"Please, stay for the orientation session," Kord added as John was about to walk out. "It'll help you get a better look at this place. I insist."

He looked about to reject the offer before Loki mentioned something to him about Luke appreciating it.

"Oh, why not," John said, taking a step towards us. "Why don't we just start over?" he added, holding out a hand to Kord. "I'm John Jones, Luke's dad."

"I'm Professor Zane," Kord replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Well, today has certainly been interesting," Luke mumbled.

"Sorry about this," I told Luke. "I didn't know saying Loki's name would cause this."

"It's okay," he replied. "Can you really understand slugs?"

"A little. I'm able to roughly translate what they say, but not much," I explained. "Can I ask you a favor, though?"

"That depends on what it is," he replied, placing a picture of him and his parents on his desk.

"I want to keep my family a secret," I said. "I don't want people judging me based on my parents. Can you keep this between us?"

"Sure thing," he told me. "If you don't mind me asking, where are your real parents?"

"I don't mind," I replied as Kord struck up a conversation with John/Twist. "When I was a year old, a few thugs broke into my parents' home and stole all our money. My parents tried to fight them off, but the thugs killed them instead. I managed to hide until the Shane Gang came to arrest the thugs. When Trixie found me, I was absolutely terrified. They took me to their hideout and raised me there, eventually adopting me a year later. Thirteen years have gone by since them."

"I'm sorry," Luke added. "At least you've got a new family now," he told me, looking on the bright side.

"Come on, guys," Kord told us. "The orientation session begins in ten minutes, so we should get going."

"We're coming," we replied. Burpy, Yang, and Speedy jumped on my shoulders and Dune went to Luke's as we walked out.

Halfway to the main building that the session's held in, I sped up to match pace with Kord, who was leading the way.

"Somebody's gonna have to tell my parents about this," I told him.

"Well I won't," he said.

"I'm not either," I replied.

"I'm not gonna tell him," came the roughly translated addition from Burpy, who was sitting in a slug tube.

Kord and I immediately looked from each other to Burpy.

"Hey, wanna do us a favor?" Kord asked Burpy. He shook his head.

"Why not?" I asked. "Eli's most likely to take it best coming from you, his favorite slug and best friend. Besides, you should go home before you draw any more attention."

He shook his stubbornly again, but after a couple more minutes of coercion he agreed to tell Eli, so he jumped off my shoulder and set off for the Hideout.

"Stay safe!" I shouted after Burpy.

"I feel bad for anyone dumb enough to mess with him," Kord commented. I couldn't help but agree.

Another minute later we arrived at the building, so Kord had to point us in the right direction before taking off to meet with the other professors.

"Let's get seated," I suggested to Luke.

We ventured into the large auditorium Kord had directed us to and took a seat amongst a bunch of other kids our age.

"There's a lot of kids here," I commented when we were comfortable. They varied in age from 10 to 17.

"Students are allowed to enroll as long as they're 10 years old or older," Twist/John explained.

About three seconds later the session began, and silence fell across the room.

"Welcome to SlugTerra University," the president of the college announced.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4—Welcome to SlugTerra University

Thanks for all the great reviews. For a description of Jacob, check my profile page.

"I am the president of this great hall of learning, Tobias. I am glad to see so many people joining us here."

He divided us by age, sending each age group with a different guide.

"All of you who are fifteen years of age, please follow Maria," Tobias said, gesturing to a girl in the back of the room with a large '15' painted on a sign she was holding.

Every person who was 15 years old stood up and followed her out, a line of about thirty-to-fifty kids walking out.

"As you can see, we have a very modernized campus," Maria began as the last of us emerged from the building. We just began to walk to the building all the Mecha-related classes take place in when a few kids ran into me from behind, sending my slugs and I sprawling.

"Hey, watch where you're going," I demanded as I made sure Speedy and Yang were okay. When I stood up and had spun around to face the aggressors I was facing three kids my age. One of them was a few inches taller than me and much bigger. The other two were a set of twins smaller and paler than the first guy.

"_You_ watch where _you're_ going," the first guy, obviously the leader of the little trio, sneered. "You got in my way."

I was right about to take a swing at him when Luke dragged me along to keep up with the main group.

"You don't want to mess with those guys," Luke told me. "Did you see that one kid? He could knock you out with one hit, especially with that Rammstone of his."

"Well, he needs to not be so rude to other people, even if I have to teach him," I replied. Speedy growled from my shoulder to reinforce the point. Yang said nothing, tucked comfortably in the rolled-up cuff of my beanie

"You can't hurt him," Luke said. "He would take you down before you had a chance to draw your blaster."

I frowned but kept going with the group.

"Hey, what's your name?" the guy from earlier demanded, walking up beside me while we made our way to the building that Blaster-tech related classes are held.

"Jacob Taylor," I replied. "You?"

"Rob James," he said. "I'm glad I found you. Listen." He held out his shirt sleeve, which had a small tear in it. "Can you fix this up? I need a tailor, big time."

Before I had a chance to say or do anything in response he took off laughing, running into me on the way. I would've lost my balance if Luke hadn't been there.

"Thanks, man," I replied, glaring at Rob and his goons.

"Just try and enjoy the tour," Luke insisted.

I nodded and looked around as we entered the building, in front of which is a statue of Red Hook, the famous blaster-smith. The building, Red Hook Hall, is named after him. He passed away five years ago, though, but not before teaching some apprentices his craft so that they could pass on his knowledge. I've always been interested in blaster-smithing, so I split my class interests between blaster-smithing and Slugslinging. I even began to drool as the group passed by a few workshops, which had the latest equipment and technology.

After we finished in that building we moved onto the library, which is _HUGE_. It's a three-story building, two of them dedicated to books with the third for studying. It has books on every topic from albino slugs to Wild Spores Cavern and more. I could've spent days in there and not even finish a small fraction of the collection. I would've done it, too, but Luke made me keep going.

"What made you want to go here?" I asked Luke as we kept walking.

"Dad insisted," he told me, pointing to his father, who was a few yards ahead of us and talking with another parent. "He wants to make sure I get a good education and that I can get a good job later on in life. What about you?"

"Similar story," I replied. "My parents want me to get a good education, but I've always wanted to go here since I first heard of it."

We followed the group throughout the rest of campus, barely paying any attention to the buildings we passed through until we got to the building for Slugslinging classes. There was a large statue of Will Shane, Eli's dad, in front of it. We paid as much attention as we could to the training facilities, and even tried to get a peek at a couple practice duels, but Luke's dad managed to get us away.

"Looks like somebody wants to be a slugslinger," Rob said, running into me again. "With what slugs do you plan on slinging with, Taylor?" he growled at me.

"Is there anything wrong here?" a professor asked us, walking up to the five of us.

Rob sneered at me before taking a step back. "No, professor, nothing wrong," he said, walking away with his two followers close behind.

We continued through the building and finally finished the tour at the cafeteria, which required its own building.

"You should call your parents later to let them know you're all moved in," Kord recommended, walking up behind me as I walked to a line so that I could get my food.

"I will," I replied. "I wonder if Burpy got back all right."

"He's probably fine," he replied. "That little slug's one of the toughest ones I've ever seen."

"Yeah, you're right," I replied. We went through the line without a problem and managed to grab a table that was empty, claiming it for ourselves.

"Excuse me, excuse me." We heard a voice repeating that and eventually found the source, a kid around our age. He was wearing a set of regular glasses with Holo-Glasses hardware built into the frames and lens. He was making his way through the crowd of students to one of the last empty tables.

Before he could get there, though, Rob stuck his foot out subtly and tripped the kid right in front of our table. The kid's arms flailed out in front of him, launching his food into the air.

Kord stood up, making sure to catch all the food as I rose to catch the kid.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, standing up under his own power.

"Why don't you sit with us?" I asked him. "There's a spot right here," I offered, helping him into the seat.

"Watch where you're going, kid," Rob sneered at the kid. "You almost spilled your food."

I stood up again and scowled at Rob. "How about you keep your big feet out of the way?" I suggested, my hands clenching into fists.

"Oh, and you're gonna stop me?" he demanded, rising to his feet as well.

The cafeteria fell silent.

"If I have to, yeah," I replied. I actually though it was going to turn into a fight when Kord intervened.

"Is there a problem here?" Kord asked, stepping between us.

Rob looked from me to Kord and back before picking the less dangerous route for all of us. "No, no problems here, professor," he said with a frown.

"How about you?" Kord asked me.

"No problems, Professor Zane," I told him.

"Good," Kord sat down again and began eating. Rob and I followed suit.

"Thanks for helping me out," the kids that was tripped told me.

"No problem," I replied. "Name's Jacob Taylor, but you can call me Jake. What's your name?"

Marcus Smith," he said, shaking my outstretched hand. "You can just call me Mark, though," he added. Luke introduced himself as we began eating.

"What classes do you plan on taking?" Kord asked him.

"I plan to focus my studies on Slugology, but I want to take a few Slugslinging classes to help me develop my dueling skill."

"How good of a slinger are your?" I asked him.

"I'm not bad, but I'm not great, either," he said. "How about you guys?"

"Not bad, but my parents let me win whenever they let me practice with them," I replied.

"Same here," Luke agreed.

"I don't let you win?" Twist/John said. Okay, it's getting annoying typing in Twist/John, so whenever I say 'John' or 'Twist', I'm talking about Luke's dad. Okay? Okay.

"Yeah, sure you don't" Luke said sarcastically.

"Where are your slugs?" I asked Mark.

"Right here," he said, lifting two slug tubes from a holder at his waist. "My Dirt Urchin's name is Needles, and my Polero's name is Stringer. What about your slugs?"

We pulled out our slugs and introduced him, Luke including a Tormato slug that was napping when we first met. The slug's name is Typhoon.

"Nice to meet you guys," I said to Mark's slugs. They said 'hi' back before gathering around a plate of slug food that was already at the table, courtesy of the University.

"What's on the schedule for after lunch?" Kord asked me. I pressed a button on the side of my Holo-Glasses to activate them. The lens turned completely black as I slid them down in front of my eyes, but after a second they cleared up, revealing the home screen. I pressed a few buttons on a small remote that controls the computer and pulled up my schedule.

"In ten minutes, everyone our age has to go to a different building to take a test," I said, reading the display. It takes a few tries to figure out what information's on the lens and what's not, but once you get used to it using the Glasses is easy. "It's to determine what level we should be placed in for our age group. Each level is specific to a how developed your skills are."

"Is it the same room for everyone?" Mark asked.

"No, it's not," Kord explained. "The rooms you go in are based on what subjects you plan to focus on here. Since the three of you plan on taking Slugslinging courses, you will start off in a section that tests your slinging abilities with your own slugs and ones you barely know. It helps test how well you can adapt. At the end of the test, if you do well enough and are good to the slugs they lend you, they allow you to keep one as a friend."

"That. Is. AWESOME!" Luke and I said at the same time. "I didn't know they did that!"

"Your dad was insistent on it," Kord told me. "Wanted to make sure everyone could make a new friend here, even if it's only with a slug."

"Who's your dad?" Mark asked me. So much for a cover story.

"My real dad was killed when I was a year old," I told him. "Eli and Trixie Shane adopted me, so technically, Eli Shane's my father. My full name's Jacob Taylor Shane."

"What?" he said, almost spewing his food over the table. "Eli Shane's your dad?"

"Yeah, but I don't want everyone to know yet," I told him.

"Okay, I can keep it a secret," he said hurriedly, excited that he met a Shane.

"Well, it won't stay a secret for long," Kord commented. "Some of the tests are one-on-one, so they call you in by name. The moment they reach 'Shane, Jacob', everyone will know who you are."

"Good point," I mumbled. "Well, it was nice being a nobody while it lasted."

"Don't worry, the excitement will fade," Kord told me. "Eventually."

"Well, we should get going," Marcus said, checking the clock on his Glasses. "We have five minutes."

We all stood up and Mark and I waited while Luke hugged his father goodbye.

"Don't worry, we can visit each other," John said. "Next time I come, I'll bring your mother."

Luke grinned. "Deal," he said. The five of us walked out together, but once we were outside we split up. Kord went off to meet with other professors, Twist left to go home, and the three of us went to the building for the tests.

"Please, wait in here while we wait for the rest of you to arrive," an assistant told us when we arrived at the proper building. He ushered us into a room with the rest of the 15-year-olds, minus Rob and his crew.

We talked with the other people and met a bunch of new slugs before the last three people finally showed up.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5—Testing

Disclaimer: I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. This chapter's a bit longer than the other ones, so get comfortable.

"I need the following people to follow me," a professor told us, holding a list of names. "We will be going to the Mecha-testing area."

He read off a list of names, Luke's near the top. I gave Luke a thumbs-up as he followed the professor and nine other students out.

After that a professor came by to take students who plan to take Slugology courses, so I wished Mark good luck and waited for my name to be called.

As it turns out, they didn't call my name then. Blaster-smithing was the last section left, so the professor just told the rest of us to follow him to a separate room, where they had us sit at desks.

"You have thirty minutes to answer as many questions as possible," she told us when we were all seated, gesturing to the tests in front of us. I pulled a pen out of my pocket and wrote my name on the front before opening to the first page and question #1: "What powers a blaster's fusion core?"

I smiled and circled the right answer before moving on, answering every question I could and trying my hardest at the ones I didn't know. The thirty-minute time slot flew by, and when it was done the professor took our tests and dismissed us to return to the main room.

"How do you think you did?" Luke asked me when I returned.

"I'm pretty confident. How about you guys?" I replied.

"I think I did fairly well," Mark said nervously.

"I'm sure we all did great," Luke assured us.

"We will now call you in individually for your dueling tests," one of the professors told us. They started off with 'Abernathy, Bryan', and we sat down to watch Slugball matches, rooting for our favorite teams.

"Is that a Negashade slug?" an unfamiliar voice asked me suddenly when we were reaching the D's.

I spun around in my seat and saw a girl our age sitting there. An Armashelt slug was on her shoulder and a Jellyish in a slug tube on a tube clip on her waist.

"Yeah, it is," I replied. Yang perked up, realizing we were talking about him. "His name's Yang."

"He's so _cute!_" she squealed. "Can I touch him?"

"Um…sure," I replied, not used to people being so excited about a slug. Yang jumped onto my hand and I held him out for her to rub the top of his head.

"What's your name?" she asked me.

"Jacob," I replied. "Jacob Shane." Why not tell her? Everyone in the room would find out once they call me in for the test.

She looked up at me rapidly, almost launching her Armashelt from her shoulder. "Seriously?" she asked me. "You're a Shane?"

I shrugged. "It's no big deal," I told her. "To answer your question, though, I am a Shane."

She squealed again. "That's so cool!" she said. "What's it like?"

"Um…did I mention it's no big deal?" I repeated.

"Oh, sorry," she replied.

"What's your name, anyways?" I asked her.

"I'm Emmaline Walker, but you can just call me 'Emma'," she told me. Her slugs hopped onto her outstretched hand. "These are my slugs. My Jellyish's name is Slimer, and my Armashelt's name is Bruiser."

"So much for keeping your identity a secret," Luke mumbled.

"Hey, people will find out later," I told him. I introduced Speedy and Yang to Emma and soon Luke, Mark, Emma and I were talking.

"What courses do plan on taking?" I asked her.

"I plan to focus on Slugslinging courses with a bit of Mecha-Engineering mixed in," she said. "What about you guys?"

We told her and were talking for ten more minutes before Luke was called out for her test.

"Good luck!" I called after him

"How do you think he'll do?" I asked them

"Probably very well," Mark said. "From what I could tell, his slugs are fairly powerful and he has considerably skill."

"You can tell all that from looking at him?" Emma asked him.

"I'm good at reading people," he said simply.

We soon found out the results when Luke emerged again a few minutes later with a new addition to his team, a Rammstone slug, in one of his slug tubes.

"How did you do?" I asked him.

"It was great!" he told us. "They had me do target practice with my slugs before giving me a group of new slugs that I had to duel another slinger with. He's a few years older than me and had a bunch more experience, but I managed to hold my own a bit before he beat me."

"Good job," I congratulated him. "Have you come up with a name for your new slug?"

"His name's Smasher," he said. We welcomed him and introduced him to our slugs before sitting down and waiting for another of us to be called.

Thirty minutes later a kid emerged from the other room with a new Flaringo slug and the professor said, "Would the following student please accompany me to their test: Shane, Jacob."

The room fell silent and watched as I stood up and followed the professor.

"Good luck!" Mark yelled after me. I nodded and smiled back as Yang and Speedy jumped into their slug tubes.

I followed the teacher through a hallway and into a room where a table with three more professors were waiting with a large group of slugs in front of them. The slugs waved to Speedy and Yang as I approached.

"Please present your slugs," one of the professors told me.

I pulled the two slug tubes off my bandolier and placed them on the table so that Speedy and Yang could jump out.

They were inspected for a few seconds before being given back to me.

"Take out the targets with the slugs you have and we will continue," a professor told me, gesturing to five targets behind me. "You get one shot with each slug to take out as many as possible," she added.

"You guys ready?" I asked my slugs. They nodded and I drew my blaster, loading Speedy as I did so. I carefully adjusted the angle I was aiming at until it was just right, when I pulled the trigger. Speedy transformed within a second, curling up into a sphere so that he could bounce off the walls, ceiling and targets until he took out all but two targets. The problem was, they were at separate ends of the target line.

"Good job, buddy," I told Speedy when he got back to me. He nodded and jumped onto my shoulder as I loaded Yang.

"Are you ready to do this, Yang?" I asked him. He nodded and chirped, letting me know he was ready. I moved a few feet to the left and aimed at the one farthest away, launching Yang once I was ready.

Again, he transformed almost right away, using his Shadokan attack to destroy one target before smashing into another.

"Good job," one of the professors told me. One of them stood up and held out six slug tubes with new slugs. "You are to use these slugs for your next test. Please refrain from using your own slugs, as it will cause points to be deducted from your overall score," she added.

I made sure Yang was comfortable on my hat before walking forward to accept the new slugs. The team consisted of a Jellyish, Armashelt, Phosphoro, Arachnet, Bubbaleone, and Flatulorhinkus.

"Nice to meet you guys," I told them as I attached the tubes to my bandolier and belt. "I'm sure we'll do great together."

"For your next test you are to duel me," somebody said, walking in behind me. I turned around and saw an eighteen-year-old standing near another door.

We walked to a cleared-out area of the room and moved until we were twenty feet from each other.

"You may begin," the professors told us.

"Good luck," the student told me. "You can go first."

I looked over my slugs again and a plan immediately appeared in my head. I loaded the Phosphoro slug without revealing the slug to the student and shot it right in front of him. As he shielded his eyes from the bright flash of light I jumped to the side, shooting my Jellyish right at the spot he was about to step, causing him to fall to the ground. He caught himself in time, though, and launched a Rammstone at me.

I barely managed to leap away before the slug hit the spot my stomach used to be. He launched a Hop Rock at me but I managed to use my Arachnet to launch it back at him, knocking him to the ground. I fired the Flatulorhinkus at him, causing him to roll over and lift his shirt to his nose as an attempt to block out the stink. I used the opportunity to snatch my Arachnet back up and launch it again, tying him to the floor long enough to get right up to him, Armashelt aimed at his head.

"I yield," he said, hands lifted in surrender. "You definitely fight like a Shane, I'll give you that," he added as I untied him and helped him up.

"Thanks. You were pretty good, too," I commented. I thanked the slugs that were lent to me for the duel and set them on the table.

"Due to your skill and overall kindness to the slugs loaned to you, we will allow you to keep one of them," the professors told me.

I looked over the six slugs in front of me before holding out my hand to the Arachnet. "Would you like to join my team?" I asked it. "It's not very big, but I would appreciate it if you want to join me."

It nodded and jumped on my hand with a smile and a few chirps.

"I think I'll name you 'Stinger'," I told it. "Does that sound good?"

Stinger nodded right away so I set him in a slug tube and followed the professor from earlier to the main area.

"How'd you do?" Luke asked me as Mark was called back.

"Pretty well. I got a new member of my team," I replied, pointing to Stinger.

"Ooh! He's so cute!" Emma squealed, looking at Stinger closely.

"So it's true, then," Rob said, walking up to us. "You're really a Shane?"

"Yeah, I am," I replied, standing up. "Why?"

"What's with the name 'Taylor', then?" he demanded. "You ashamed of being a Shane?"

"What?" I snapped. "Why would I be ashamed? I didn't want people treating me differently because of my last name."

"He's just sad because he's not even a real Shane," one of the twins said. "He's just some kid they adopted."

"You wanna say that again?" I asked, hands balling into fists. "Yeah, I'm adopted, but I'm still a Shane."

I thought we were going to fight again but a professor interfered, breaking up the fight before it even had a chance to begin.

"You shouldn't let him get to you like that," Luke told me. "That's the fourth time today you've almost gotten into a fight, and the school year hasn't even started yet."

"I don't like it when people talk about my family like that," I said with a frown. We sat back down, but before we could get into a conversation a couple other kids walked up to us and started asking me questions, rapid-fire style.

"Is Eli Shane really your dad?" "What's it like being a Shane?" "Do you want to be the next Shane to keep the peace?" Those are just some of the questions people asked me.

Finally, five minutes later, Mark walked back into the main room and managed to get the group to leave.

"How'd you do?" I asked him.

"Not bad. I lost the duel, but managed to take out every target by only using Needles," he replied. He showed us the new Phosphoro slug he received, named 'Shiner', and Emma declared him cute along with the rest of our slugs.

"How did you do in your duel?" Luke asked me a few minutes later. "You never actually told us."

"I won," I replied. "It was probably just a fluke though. A couple lucky shots," I added, trying to make it not seem as impressive.

"Who was the slinger?" Mark asked me.

I described the person for him.

"That's the guy that beat me. He seemed a bit riled up about something, too. I think he's one of their senior students," he said.

"You're a good slinger," Emma complemented me. "Must run in the family."

"Sure," I told her. We were about to keep talking when they called the last person, Emma, in for her test.

"I wonder how well she'll do," I thought out loud as she walked away.

"She'll probably be fine," Mark said. "Her Jellyish won't be very useful for taking out the targets, but the Armashelt can do some serious damage, especially if she knows how to use it well."

We weren't wondering long, because she walked out three minutes later with a new Hexlet slug on her shoulder.

"Isn't he the cutest?" Emma asked, rubbing the top of her Hexlet's head.

"What's his name?" I asked her.

"Lucky," she told us.

"Isn't that kinda ironic?" Luke asked. "Hexlet slugs create bad luck."

"Yeah, I know, but because of this little slug's HyJinx attack, I won the duel," she told us.

"Congrats on the win," Mark told her.

"Thanks," she said with a wide grin.

"Attention, everyone!" the head professors of every department asked as they walked in. "We have calculated the results of your tests and sent the results along with your schedules to your Holo-Pads or Holo-Glasses. You may now return to your dorm rooms."

There was a large rush as every kid first powered on their Holo-Pads or Glasses before walking to the door.

"What score did you get?" I asked Luke, opening my scores as I spoke.

"I got ninety-three points out of a possible hundred for the Mecha-Engineering section, and for the slinging section I got eighty-seven out of a hundred," he told me. "Losing the duel probably knocked off points. How about you?"

I reviewed my scored. "I got ninety-eight out of a possible hundred points for the Blaster-Smithing section and a hundred for the slinging section," I told him, making sure the numbers were correct.

"Congratulations," Mark told us.

"How did you guys do?" Luke asked Emma and Mark.

"I got a ninety-two for Slugology and eighty-seven for the slinging part," Mark said. "What about you, Emma?"

"I got an eighty out of a hundred for Mecha-Engineering and a hundred for slinging," Emma replied.

"Good job, guys," I told them. We walked around campus for a few minutes, making sure we knew where every building was that we'd need before the subject of Mecha-Beasts was brought up.

"What kind of Mecha-Beast do you have?" Luke asked me.

"I've got the STRY-D3R model," I replied. "Professor Zane built it for me a couple birthdays ago."

We decided to show each other our Mechas so we ran to them and rode them back to that spot.

"Cool Mecha," I told Luke, checking out his Tiger Mecha.

"Thanks. You too," he replied.

We arrived back at the spot a minute later, where Mark and Emma were waiting for us. Mark was riding a Horse Mecha and Emma was on a Cheetah Mecha.

"Nice Mechas," Emma complemented when they saw us approach.

"Thanks. Same for you two," I replied.

"We should probably go back to our dorm rooms to make sure our class supplies have arrived," Mark recommended as we were riding around campus.

We agreed with him and turned to our respective Residence Halls. Emma and Mark were in Fandango Hall, which was actually right next to Shane Hall, so we didn't really split up until we reached the buildings themselves.

When Luke and I reached our dorm room I used my key card to unlock the door so that we could enter, the door automatically relocking itself a few seconds after we closed it again.

"Looks like they delivered our things while we were gone," Luke commented when we saw the new boxes on our beds.

We each walked over to our beds and opened them. Mine contained books about how blasters work and are constructed along with a few books about the history of Slugslinging. Luke's box contained books about Mechas and Mecha-related topics.

I was right about to start putting the books away on my desk when I got a notification of Eli and Trixie calling me on the data-pad I keep for calls. Holo-Glasses haven't advanced enough to allow for video chats quite yet.

I grabbed the pad and powered it on, accepting the call within seconds.

"Hey there, big guy," Eli said a few seconds after his image appeared on the screen. "How's it going there?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6—The Call

I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. Thanks for all the great reviews.

"Hey, Dad. It's great here," I replied. My slugs appeared from their spots to say 'hi' to him as well.

"Who's your new slug?" Eli asked me.

"This is Stinger," I replied, introducing my Arachnet. "Where's Mom?" I added.

"She's right here," he said before Trixie's image appeared in Eli's place.

"How are you doing, honey?" she asked me. "Is everything alright there?"

"Yeah, Mom, it's fine," I told her. She smiled and was about to say something when a bunch of slugs appeared on the screen, waving and chirping at me.

"Hey, guys. It's nice to see you, too," I assured them. Burpy was amongst them, so I knew that Eli and Trixie know about Luke's father.

"Is there anything you would like to tell us?" Eli asked me.

"I met my roommate today," I told him, turning the camera to show Luke. He waved. Before turning it back to face me.

"That's not what I was talking about," Eli said.

"Oh, and I also met Twist today. Did you know that he's Luke's father?" I asked him. "His real name's actually John Jones. He's changed a lot since you last met him. Kord got along with him well enough."

"You should have contacted us to tell us instead of having Burpy pass on the news," Eli scolded me.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to be the one you flip out on," I explained, imagining the scene of Burpy somehow explaining it to Eli, and then Eli's reaction when he figured it out. Not pretty.

"That's still no excuse for not telling us sooner," Eli told me. "Twist is dangerous."

"Dad! I already told you!" I said. "He's changed. He got somebody to un-ghoul Loki. He's changed his ways. Even Burpy believes him!"

Eli turned to Burpy, who was hiding behind Joules.

"Do you really believe him?" Eli asked Burpy. The slug looked out from behind Joules and nodded. Joules finally figured out that Burpy was hiding and hopped away.

Eli sat there for a few minutes thinking before Trixie took the Pad back.

"Have you made friends there?" she asked me.

"Yeah, a few," I replied. Luke walked over and sat down next to me so that he could speak as well.

"You must be Luke," Trixie said when she saw him. "I'm Jacob's mother, Trixie."

"It's nice to meet you," Luke replied. "And just so you now, my dad _has_ changed," he added. "I've never seen him do anything bad like the stories about Twist suggest. Whenever I did something wrong, he used the Shane Gang as an example for how to act."

"I believe you," she told us. "Eli, though…he has a lot to think about. He and Twist were like brothers when we were betrayed, and scars like that don't like to heal, even with time."

"Can I have the Pad back?" Eli asked from off-screen. Trixie handed the Pad back to him and soon we were looking at Eli.

"Alright, I believe him," he told us. "I believe he's changed, but it will take me a while for me to forgive him for betraying us."

"I understand," Luke said.

We chatted for a few more minutes about school before Luke and I had to leave for dinner.

"Stay safe!" Trixie added right before the call ended.

"Your parents are cool," Luke told me as we walked out.

"Thanks. Your dad's nice," I replied. "Where was your mom?"

"She wanted to avoid a scene here when she said goodbye, so she stayed home," Luke explained. "Why didn't your parents come with you?"

"I wanted to do it by myself, to show I'm becoming mature," I replied.

"It about took you two long enough to get out here!" Emma said when we got outside. She and Mark were waiting for us on their Mechas.

"Let us go get our Mechas," we replied. We ran over to the parking area and jumped onto our Mechas, starting them up easily.

"Let's go eat before all the food's gone," Luke said, revving his engine. The two of us raced to the cafeteria building, but ended up tying.

Once Mark and Emma caught up with us we entered the building and went to one of the floors for dinner.

"This is probably one of the best parts of this place," Luke commented when we got to a table with our trays loaded with food.

"Agreed," I replied, lifting a slice of pizza to my mouth.

We had finished eating twenty minutes later or so and were going to take care of our trays when somebody stuck out their foot to trip me. It was Rob, of course. I managed to recover without any problems and struggled to keep myself from saying anything as we kept walking.

"What's your first class tomorrow?" Emma asked Mark as we walked around campus.

"It's…" he began, checking his Holo-Glasses before continuing, "Slugslinging: The Basics. It's required for every new kid here, so we'll be in it together."

"Cool," I replied. "A nice way to start a day."

"Hey, Shane!" a voice behind us called a few minutes later.

I stopped my Mecha and motioned for the others to continue as I turned around.

"I'll catch up with you guys," I told them.

I looked for the person who called my name and found him, or should I say, her.

"What's up?" I asked her.

"Why are you hanging out with those…people?" she asked me, planning on using a different word than 'people'. She looked like she had been going to SU for a few years. "Come hang out with us," she suggested, gesturing to a few other kids that didn't look new, either. They appeared to be the popular group.

"For your information, those 'people' are my friends. And no, I don't want to hang out with you guys," I said, turning my Mecha around again and setting Stryder to a jog to catch up with the others.

"What was that about?" Luke asked me.

"They wanted me to abandon you three to hang out with them," I explained. "Don't worry, though. I turned 'em down."

"I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to," Mark said. "We aren't exactly 'popular'."

"Just wait until classes begin," Luke told him. "Our awesome skills will put us right at the top."

"Yeah, right," Mark replied. "More like Jake and Emma. They're the ones that got 100's on their slinging tests."

"We just got lucky," Emma assured him. "Besides, you did awesome on your Slugology test. Ninety-two is pretty good."

We rode around for a minute or two longer before remembering that we have to register our new slugs with the University.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Emma asked us.

"The General Education building," Mark told us, pointing to the building at the center of campus.

Within thirty seconds we were standing in front of the building.

"Excuse me, where do we go to register our new slugs?" Luke asked a kid who walked by.

"Oh, you go into that building, turn right, and walk twenty feet in that direction. There's a booth you register them at," the guy told us.

"Thanks," Luke replied as we walked inside.

"Hello. Would you like to register any new slugs?" a kind person asked us when we arrived at the booth. There was a Flaringo and a Lariat playing around on the table.

We presented our new slugs and the woman at the booth wrote down the names of the different species, their size, health, and the names we refer to them by.

"You know, not many people name their slugs," she commented as she wrote down our slugs' names. "It's nice to see people being so kind to their slugs. Have a nice day," she added, handing back our slugs when she was done.

"You, too," we replied.

"What do we do now?" Mark asked us. "Is there anything to do here?"

"Give me a minute," I told him, checking my Holo-Glasses. "There's a professional Slugslinging competition tonight for students taking place soon in Slinger Hall." That's the building where practice duels are held along with some Slugslinging courses.

"When does it start?" Emma asked me.

"Twenty minutes. I suggest we get moving, though," I added, viewing the seating chart. "The available seats are quickly being taken."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7—The Competition

Thanks everyone for the great reviews! I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs.

We hit the throttles and went at a sprint to the Hall, where hundreds of other students were gathered outside. In order to discourage non-students from entering, you either had to use your identification card to enter for free or pay for a ticket.

"Are you Jacob Shane?" one of the security slingers asked me when we arrived.

"Um…yes?" I replied, unsure of what was going on.

"Follow me, please," he told me. "You may bring your friends if you wish."

We parked our Mechas and followed the man through a side entrance and up a set of stairs to a private viewing area, in which the President of the University, a few rich folk and some professors were sitting.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked the slinger when we arrived.

"I was just told to bring you and your friends up here," he said before walking out again.

"Ah, hello there!" the President, Tobias, said when he saw us. He walked over and shook our hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you four. I'm Tobias, the President of SlugTerra University."

We introduced ourselves and Tobias insisted that we sit in a row of eight chairs, half of which were still empty after we were seated.

Twenty minutes later the announcer picked up his microphone and began speaking.

"Hello, everyone!" he shouted. "How are we doing today?"

Everyone screamed, including the four of us, the younger professors, and Tobias.

"I can't hear you!" the announcer said.

We all screamed louder. I was glad that the private area was still open in the front, or else our screaming would've turned us deaf.

"That's more like it! Now, we have a special surprise for you this year," the announcer said. "Amongst our normal duelers we have the honor of having the Shane Gang itself compete, including our own Professor Kord Zane of Mecha-Engineering!"

"What!" I screamed, running to the rail. I activated the camera on my Holo-Glasses and zoomed them in until I could see, sure enough, Eli, Trixie, Kord and Pronto standing there amidst twenty-eight other duelists. The thirty-two contestants began to wave at the screaming crowds. Eli saw me looking at him and waved at me.

"Did you know they're competing in the competition?" Luke asked me.

"No clue. I didn't even know they held this competition, much less that they were in it," I replied.

"Okay, let's move to the first round!" the announcer said. "The matchups will appear on the screen above your heads."

I pulled up a picture of the matchups on my Glasses and ran them through my head. The only member of the Gang that would have problems would be Pronto, who would be battling a guy in his early 20's. He may be younger than Pronto, but according to his records he's rarely lost a match.

"The first match will be…Eli Shane versus Martin James!" the announcer said. Martin James is Rob's father. I could immediately see the resemblance between them, from the eyes to the same cocky grin.

"I feel bad for Martin," Mark commented.

We watched as the rest of the contestants went to a separate area to watch the matches and Eli and Martin moved to the dueling section of the arena. They stood twenty feet apart and waited for the announcer to fire a Hop Rock, which was the symbol to begin.

When he did Martin and Eli jumped into action. Eli loaded Rocky and fired him at Martin's feet to throw him off balance, but Martin dodged the attack and launched a Thresher slug back at him, causing Eli to bend back so far that I thought he was going to fall on his butt.

"Your dad's good," Luke told me.

"Thanks," I replied, watching as Eli fired Chiller followed by Sparky, both of whom threw Martin off-balance enough for Eli to wrap him up using Bolo.

"And the winner is Eli Shane!" the announcer said. Eli raised his fists in victory and walked off the field after helping Martin to his feet.

The next matchup was Pronto vs. his opponent, named Carl Smith, no relation to Mark. They did fairly well against each other in the beginning, but Pronto gained the upper hand when he Mega-Morphed his Flatulorhinkus, Stinky. The resulting stench caused his opponent to gag and almost pass out while Pronto pinned him down with an Arachnet slug.

"The winner is Pronto!" the announcer said.

"How else could it have ended?" Pronto added. "I am Pronto the Magnificent!" I couldn't help but chuckle.

In Trixie's duel she won as well, starting off by launching an Arachnet to take down a Rammstone then launching a Polero followed by Bluster and finally finished off by her Armashelt. Kord took down his opponent with a chain attack of Hop Rock, Armashelt, Grenuke, and then finally his Rammstone, which scored him the victory.

"I wonder how far the Shane Gang will get," I thought out loud.

"Championship," Mark said. "At least Eli will get that far. He's the best slinger in all of SlugTerra."

"True enough," Luke agreed.

We watched the rest of the matches in that round before the announcer told us that the next round would be held the following night after the last classes.

"Why didn't you tell me you were competing?" I yelled as I tackled Eli in a hug later.

"We wanted to keep it a surprise," he replied.

"Hey there, sweetie," Trixie said, approaching us.

I released Eli and hugged her tightly. "Hey, Mom." A few seconds later Luke cleared his throat. I let go of Trixie and took a step back.

"Guys, these are my parents, Eli and Trixie Shane," I told my friends. "Mom and Dad, these are my friends, Luke Jones, Mark Smith, and Emma Walker."

My friends seemed speechless for a few seconds before Emma said, "It's nice to meet you, both of you," while shaking their hands.

"Nice to meet you three as well," Eli said. "What classes do you plan on taking here?"

My friends told my parents what they plan to specialize in.

"I'm sorry about what my father did to you guys back when you were our age," Luke apologized to Eli.

Eli's look of happiness was replace for a split second by anger before he recovered. "It's not your fault, Luke," Eli told him. "Let's not talk about that tonight, though."

Mark yawned suddenly. "I'm getting pretty tired, so I'm gonna return to my dorm," he told us.

"Me, too," Emma agreed, yawning widely.

We waved to them and I hugged my parents before Luke and I left for our dorm room.

"I think I'm gonna turn in," Luke commented when we were inside our room. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah, it has," I agreed. We changed into our pajamas and climbed into our beds.

"Good night, guys," I told my slugs, laying my beanie next to my on the pillow. Speedy and Yang like to sleep in it, and Stinger soon adopted the habit, crawling in between the layers of my hat next to Speedy. I made sure they were comfortable before I set my Glasses on my bedside table and turned off the light, making sure my alarm was set at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8—First Day

Thanks everyone for the reviews. Expect a new character to be introduced next chapter.

The next morning the alarm woke me up right on time.

"Come on, wake up," I told Luke when I was dressed. "We need to leave in fifteen minutes," I added, throwing a pillow at his sleeping head.

Another minute went by and I was about to repeat it when Luke mumbled, "If you do that again you'll find yourself neck-deep in quicksand," and climbed out of bed to get dressed.

"We need to hurry so that we make it to breakfast with enough time to make it to class," I told him.

He rushed through getting dressed and we made sure we had everything we would need in our bags before leaving for breakfast.

"You're cutting it close with time," Mark told us when we found the table they were sitting at.

"Luke didn't set an alarm so I had to wake him up," I explained.

"Well, we need to leave in ten minutes in order to get to class on time, so I suggest you eat quickly," Emma recommended. Luke and I devoured the food on our plates in less than eight minutes, washing it down with bottled water.

"Let's get going," Luke said once we had taken care of our dishes and had returned to the table.

We left the building and walked over to the Mechas, which we rode over to the correct building in order to cut the travel time in half.

"Welcome," the professor told us when we arrived. "Please, have a seat," he added, gesturing to the five rows of chairs, ten chairs to a row.

We walked up to the first row, which was abandoned even though the rest of the rows were full, and sat down next to each other.

Ten minutes later the class began. "Hello, and welcome to Slugslinging: The Basics," the professor told us. "As your schedules indicate, you do not require any materials other than your slugs and blasters. Now, who can tell me…"

For the first twenty minutes of class he asked us questions, and whenever we didn't know the answer he would explain it to us to that we would have a full understanding of the topic before he would move on.

"The second half of the class will be practical teaching," the professor told us when his Holo-Glasses let out a soft _beep_ twenty minutes. "Everyone, please stand up and follow me," he added, leading us out of the room and into a target room, where several dozen targets were standing against one wall.

"I will have ten of you at a time practice what you've learned by shooting at these targets," he explained. He read the first ten names off his list in alphabetical order and ten students walked up to the shooting range. He blew a whistle and they each shot two slugs at the targets. Some of the slugs missed the targets, but most of them hit their targets. The targets that were destroyed were automatically replaced by new ones.

He called up the next ten names, which included Luke, Rob and Rob's friends, the twins. Rob's Armashelt hit the target dead-on, but his Rammstone missed it by a few inches.

"Why did you miss?" Rob hiss at the Rammstone. "You do this to me every time! You're the worst slug ever!" He began to throw the slug to the ground when the professor saw what was happening.

"Mr. James!" the professor yelled, launching a Bubbaleone slug to catch the Rammstone right before it hit the floor. As the slugs hopped to the professor he scolded Rob. "We _never_ intentionally harm our slugs here!" he told Rob. "If you wish to remain a student of this University, I suggest you remember that."

"What about my slug?" Rob asked.

"He will join the University's slugs until he joins somebody else's team," the professor replied.

"Fine then. Let somebody else deal with him," Rob mumbled, returning to his seat. I couldn't hide the small smile on my face, even when Rob scowled at me.

I did my best to ignore the glares sent in my direction by Rob. Instead, I watched the next group shoot at the targets. The group after that had Mark and I in it, so we walked up to the firing line and stood next to each other.

When the professor blew his whistle I loaded Speedy and fired him at the target in one fluid motion, striking the center. Before he even hit the target, though, I had loaded and fired Stinger at the second one. I didn't fire Yang because he was sleeping on my head. Again. Stinger also hit the target in the center.

"You've got good aim," Mark told me. He shot Needles, who took out the first target easily, first, followed by Stringer, who also took out a target.

"So do you," I replied. We walked back to the chairs and watched the last group, including Emma, shoot. She started off by shooting Lucky at the first target, but he didn't destroy it, which I found odd. Emma took out the second target with Bruiser, but it caused something odd to happen. A piece of the target shot out and struck the first target, destroying it as well.

"How did you know that would happen?" I asked Emma when she got back to the rest of us.

"I didn't. I just got lucky," she told us, a sly smile on her lips.

"Congratulations on doing so well at the targets," the professor. "Even though it's the first day, I'm going to hold a little competition," he added, holding up a Blastipede. "Whoever wins gets this Blastipede slug."

"What the competition about?" Luke asked him.

"It's a sharpshooting competition," he replied. "If you wish to enter, walk up to the shooting line."

Everyone looked at each other as if they wanted to enter, but in the end the only people to enter were Emma, Rob, his two friends, three other students and me.

"We'll do this four students at a time," he told us. The three students and I stepped back, allowing the other four to step up to the line.

"You are allowed three shots each," he told them. "If you need more slugs, just let me know.

They all shook their heads and spread out along the firing line, taking careful aim with their slugs. I felt bad for Emma due to her lack of offensive slugs, but that quickly disappeared when she somehow got Slimer to hit two targets at once, destroying them both at once before she launched Bruiser at the last one. She didn't take enough time to aim, though, and barely hit the target.

"Beat that, Shane," Emma told me as she walked back to wait for the rest of us to finish. Rob took out all three targets, but used all three shots to do so.

"Oh, I plan to," I told her, walking up to the firing line when the professor told us to.

"You ready, Yang?" I asked Yang, lifting him from my head. I had woken him up a few minutes previously so that he would be wide-awake when I used him.

He nodded and I loaded him into my blaster, taking careful aim at the middle target. "Remember to use your Shadokan attack," I whispered to him before pulling the trigger.

Yang did it perfectly, taking out all three targets with his shadowy stars at once.

"Good job, Yang!" I complimented him when he returned. "That was amazing!"

"You treat your slugs with a lot of respect," the professor told me. "You truly are a Shane. Here," he added, handing me the Blastipede slug. "You win the competition."

As I walked back to the rest of the class he declared that I was the winner.

"I told you so," I said to Emma. I turned to the Blastipede, which was still sitting on my hand. "Welcome to the team," I told him. "How about I name you…Blaster?"

He nodded and, with a chirp, jumped into a slug tube right next to Stinger's. They introduced themselves to each other as a bell rang somewhere, signaling the end of class.

"See you in class next week!" the professor shouted as we rushed out.

"What do you have next?" I asked Luke as we went to our Mechas.

"Mecha-Engineering 101," he said. "It's a required course when we focus in Mecha-Engineering. What about you?"

I checked my schedule. "Blaster-Smithing 101," I replied. "Required course."

When we got to our Mechas we climbed onto them and set off, Emma and Luke to the Mecha-Engineering hall, Mark to Slugology Hall, and I to Red Hook Hall.

When I arrived I was in a class with about twenty other students, ranging from 10 to 17 years old. I sat down and pulled the proper book out of my backpack and set in on my desk.

"Welcome to Blaster-Smithing 101," the professor, a man in his late 40's, maybe early 50's, greeted us. "I am Professor Mann, but you can call me Mr. Mann." He did roll call, calling each name one-by-one. There was a similar shock when my name was announced, but I was happy when it quickly passed.

Mr. Mann told us to open our books to the first chapter, which discussed the history of blasters, from the first recorded of a blaster use to their current uses in modern times.

"Your homework tonight is to answer questions 1-10 of the review section," Mr. Mann told us right before the end-of-class bell rang. As we walked out I recorded it in my Holo-Glasses so that it would remind me later that night.

My next class after that was for Slugslinging, so I rode Stryder back to the Arena, where that class is held. It's about the more advanced side of Slugslinging, and all of it is practical. According to the class description and comments, it consists of either viewing practice duels or participating in them ourselves, so I was excited.

When I arrived at the Arena there was about twenty new students gathered inside the main entrance, and a few arrived after me.

"Looks like we all got into this class," Mark commented when the four of us arrived. "It's for the advanced students."

"Awesome," I added.

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "Where's the teacher, though? Shouldn't there be one here by now?"

"Correct, Mr. Jones," a voice said from behind Luke. We all jumped and saw that the person who spoke is the professor. "And yes, the teacher is here. I am she."

The professor directed us to enter the Arena, where a few slingers were practicing. Most of them were competing in the competition, but a few were students or just using the free practicing equipment supplied by the University.

"For your first class today we will view a few practice duels," the professor told us. "Please follow me."

She led us to a set of bleachers, where we sat to watch a few practice duels. She gave us play-by-plays and explained the different fighting styles to us and how each has their own advantages and disadvantages.

"By the end of this week I hope to help each of you discover the style that fits you best," she promised us at the end of class.

"I have a feeling that class is going to be interesting," Emma commented as we walked out and went to lunch.

"I agree," I added.

When we got to the cafeteria building there was a large crowd gathered around outside. We didn't know why, but soon figured it out when we heard blasters firing from the middle. We made our way through the crowd and found the source. Two older students were dueling, but one of them easily beat the other after we watched for a couple seconds.

"Who's that?" I asked the others, pointing to the victor. He had a Hop Rock on his shoulder.

"That's the best slinger at this University," somebody next to us told me. "John Martin. Every time this University has held a competition for all grades, he enters and wins. He was eventually blocked out of a few competitions to make it more fair for the rest of the contestants."

Right then Martin looked at me and narrowed his eyes before walking into the building.

"Why did he just look at you?" Emma asked me.

"No idea, but it's probably not good," I replied. We walked into the building and to the same level we went to for breakfast and got lunch.

"What's your next class?" I asked Mark. He told me the name. I don't remember the name exactly, but it has to do with Slugology.

After lunch I rode over to my dorm room, where I swapped out my books for ones required for my classes at the second half of the day. Once I had everything I went back to Red Hook Hall for my next class.

"How much homework do you have so far?" I asked Luke when we arrived at the class after that, which is about Slugslinging.

"Not much. I need to fill out a diagram for one of my classes and answer a few questions for another," he replied. "You?"

"Bookwork for two of my classes," I said. "It's not too bad, though."

Over the next few classes I was given another homework assignment, but I was able to get it all done in a study hall fit in between a Slugslinging class and one about the history of SlugTerra, which is required by everyone at the University.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9—Aunt Karina

Thank you for all the reviews. I would also like to thank Aist Elixie Fan Shane for lending me her OC.

That night, once dinner was over there was a large rush to watch the next round of the competition.

"This round of the competition will be two-on-two duels!" the announcer announced when it began again.

"I bet I know who Eli's going to team up with," a familiar voice near the doorway said. I instantly recognized it and spun in place to look at her.

"Aunt Karina!" I shouted, tackling her in a large hug. She laughed softly and returned the hug. Saphira, her Infernus, waved at me and I waved back. "How are you?" I asked her, taking a step back.

"I've been doing well. How about you?" she asked. "I haven't seen you in any of my classes yet." Karina Shane, or Aunt Karina to me, teaches several classes at SU. Most of her courses are for very advanced Slugslinging, but she teaches a few classes about how to understand Slugs and their language overall. Eli would never admit it, but he once told me that she adjusted to SlugTerra better than he did. She can translate Slug-language perfectly, and is one of the best slingers ever, almost as good as Eli himself.

"I'm not taking any Slug-language classes," I told her. "I plan to focus on Blaster-Smithing and Slugslinging. I'm not sure if I have any of your slinging courses, though," I added. "I haven't checked."

"I guess we'll find out later this week," she replied with a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. She looked over my shoulder to my friends, whose jaws had dropped as four slingers dueled below. "Are these your friends?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah," I said, bringing her over to them. "Aunt Karina, this is Emma Walker, Mark Smith, and Luke Jones. Guys, this is my Aunt Karina. She's my dad's sister."

"Um, hi," Aunt Karina said. The staring was making her uncomfortable.

"Guys, stop staring at her," I whispered to them. All of their mouths shut at once and Luke walked up to her.

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Shane," Luke told her, shaking her hand.

"Nice to meet you too," she replied. The others walked up and greeted her, and soon they began to act normally again as we watched the matches below.

"I didn't think they would put those two duos against each other," I commented when the next match consisted of Pronto and Kord vs. Eli and Trixie.

"They want to make sure more people that aren't in the Shane Gang can make it to the later rounds," Aunt Karina explained. "I was one of the people to recommend it."

"It's a good idea," Mark commented. We watched as Trixie and Eli struggled to take down Kord and Pronto, but eventually managed to do it by using a fusion shot of Mucky and Joules followed by Bluster, which Trixie Mega-Morphed for the shot.

"And the winners are…Trixie and Eli Shane!" the announcer shouted once the winner had been decided.

A few minutes later, during the last match, the Gang walked up to the area we were at.

"Karina!" Eli said when he saw her. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, I kinda work here," Aunt Karina replied, punching him lightly on the arm. "How've you been lately, big bro?"

"Pretty good. You?"

"Same," she said. "Jacob's a great slinger," she added. "I got a look at his scores. You probably couldn't have done as well with the same slugs."

Eli shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not." He looked at me. "How was your day?" he asked me.

"Good."

Right then the announcer called the final eight slingers to return to the field, so Trixie and Eli had to leave.

"You guys did a good job out there," I complimented Kord and Pronto.

"Yeah, but we lost," Kord replied.

"Hey, look on the bright side," Karina told him. "At least you weren't battling my brother _and_ me, or else it could've ended worse for you."

"Oh, yeah," Kord mumbled. We returned to the railing to watch what was going on.

"Congratulations on making it to the final eight," Tobias, the University's president, congratulated the eight slingers. "Now, to find out the next person you are dueling, just look to your partner. That's right, for the next round you will be battling the person you partnered with for the last round."

"This'll be interesting," Emma said.

"I agree," Kord commented. "Eli won't take it easy on her, though. This'll be a fun duel to watch."

We pulled chairs up to the rail and Mark and I zoomed in the cameras on our Glasses to get a better view of the matches.

The first battle was two professors of Slugslinging, and they managed to make the fight last for five minutes before one of them fired a Hexlet slug at the other, which caused them to get dizzy and fall long enough for them to be pinned down.

"The winner is…Professor Mann!" the announcer told everyone.

"What?" I whispered, zooming in my camera even more. Just like the announcer said, Mr. Mann was the slinger who won the duel.

The next one was a lot more interesting, though, since it included Eli and Trixie.

"Good luck," Eli told her as they walked out onto the field.

"You're the one who's going to need it," Trixie replied before they were signaled to begin. Eli began by launching Buzzsaw followed by Banger.

Trixie dodged the two slugs and replied with a Mega-Morphed Bluster. The resulting tornado picked Eli up and threw him twenty feet, but he wasn't done yet. He launched a quick series of slugs. They were too fast for me to even recognize the slugs, and they were so fast that Trixie couldn't dodge them all. She managed to jump over the first two, but Goober managed to stick her hand to the ground, and Shiner dazed her long enough for Eli to run at her, loading Burpy and activating the Accelerator.

Trixie managed to free her hand and launch her Aquabeek, but Burpy in his Mega-Morph Velocimorph was able to take it down and win Eli the battle.

"Good job out there," I congratulated both of them when they got within earshot.

They looked up from the arena and waved at me before Eli went to stand by the other victors for the next matchups to be announced.

When they were the first duel was between Eli and Mr. Mann. I wasn't sure which I wanted to win. On one hand, Eli's my dad so I should root for him, but on the other hand I like Mr. Mann as a teacher and wanted him to win, so I just rooted for both of them. As almost everyone predicted, though, Eli won the duel and moved on to the championship match.

"Go Dad!" I shouted after the second match was done. He waved at me again and walked until he was standing across from the last dueler.

"Why didn't you sign up for the competition?" I asked Aunt Karina.

"I didn't feel like it," she replied. "I don't do very many competitions," she added before turning back to the Arena to watch the final duel. It didn't last as long as the Eli vs. Trixie duel, but it was still fairly interesting. The challenger never stayed still longer than a few seconds, so Eli was hard-pressed to get him to stay still until he managed to use Chiller to freeze the challenger's feet to the ground. When he tried to move he fell flat on his face, and in the time it took him to recover Eli had him tied down with Spinner.

"We have a winner!" the announcer screamed. "Eli Shane wins the championship!"

"It wasn't really surprising," Karina said. "He was way better than his opponent. I taught that kid myself. He was near the bottom of his class."

"How did he get so far, then?" I asked her.

"He got by on their mistakes," she explained. She began talking about every mistake made by his opponents, but was eventually interrupted when Eli and Trixie walked in.

"Good job out there," I told them.

"Thanks, Jake," Eli replied. Burpy and the rest of his slugs waved at me and began chirping all at once about how they miss me.

"Yeah, I miss you guys too," I told them. Yang woke up on my head and began talking with Eli's slugs.

"Is he still sleeping all the time?" Eli asked me, referring to Yang.

"Yeah. He's always done that, though," I replied. "I used him to win a competition in one of my classes that won me this little dud," I added, having Blaster jump onto my hand. "This is Blaster," I told them.

"Hey there, little guy," Trixie said to him.

"Jake, we should get going," Luke added, walking up to me. "It's getting late, and we have classes tomorrow."

"Okay." I returned Blaster to his tube and hugged my parents goodbye and fist-bumped Kord as Mark, Emma, Luke, and I walked out.

"What kinds of classes does your aunt teach?" Mark asked me when we reached our Mechas.

"Slug-language related and the very advanced Slugslinging classes," I replied. "She's one of the best slingers in SlugTerra. I wonder if I'll have any classes with her this year," I thought out loud.

"Maybe, maybe not," Emma said.

When we reached our dorm halls we split up and went to our dorm rooms.

"Good night, Jake," Luke said sleepily when we got to our room.

"Good night," I replied, removing my bandolier and blaster and placing them on my dresser before changing into my pajamas and climbing into bed, my slugs right beside me

Sometime around midnight…

"What is it?" I mumbled to Speedy, who was trying to wake me up. "It's midnight for crying out loud."

Speedy just kept chirping and growling, saying something about an intruder.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10—Intruders

Thanks everyone for the amazing reviews! I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but i had school to deal with :(

"Okay, okay. I'm getting up," I told him, sitting up and reaching for my blaster.

I had barely enough time to grab it and load Speedy when Yang growled from the door that someone was picking the lock and was almost in.

"Get over here," I told Yang. I loaded him instead of Speedy, since a Speedstinger would be worse than a Negashade in an enclosed space.

"Luke!" I hissed at Luke's prone form. He didn't wake, but I managed to wake Dune, who was able to wake up Luke.

"What's going on?" he grumbled sleepily.

"Somebody's trying to break in," I told him, silently climbing out of my bed. I tossed him his blaster and he deftly caught it, waking up instantly and loading Dune.

We stood side-by-side, blasters ready to go, while we waited for the door to open, which it did eventually. When it did a Phosphoro was fired into the room, but I countered with Yang and his Shadowblak attack, which got rid of the bright burst of light in time for us to see a few kids walk in, blasters loaded as well. None of them were even remotely familiar.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Whoa, there," one of them, a girl that I recognized as the one who tried to get me to ditch my friends, said. "We don't want to hurt anybody."

"Then why are you pointing blasters at us?" Luke asked, still a bit tired.

"Good point," she said with a sneer before the three of them each fired a Rammstone at us.

I loaded Speedy and in less than a second figured out the needed angled so that, when I launched him, he hit the lead Rammstone, bounced off it and knocked out the other two.

"How did you know that would work?" Luke asked me.

"I wasn't sure it would work, but I guessed the angle I would need and fired," I replied, loading Yang when he returned to me.

"What do you want?" Luke repeated.

"To give Shane a message," the girl sneered, nodding in my direction. She then spoke to me directly. "If you want better firepower, be at the back entrance to Enigmo Hall twenty-four hours from now."

"What do you mean by 'better firepower'?" I asked her.

"You'll figure it out if you show up," she replied.

Before I could say anything else one of them fired a Phosphoro again. The bright light almost blinded us, and when we recovered they were gone.

"What are you going to do?" Luke asked me as he returned his blaster to his dresser and climbed back into bed.

"No idea. I'll figure it out in the morning," I replied. I put my blaster and closed the door, fixing the lock as well.

At breakfast that morning I explained what happened to the others while we ate.

"You should talk to a teacher and see if they know what they were talking about," Mark advised me. "What's your first class today?"

I checked my Holo-Glasses. Slugslinging 101 is only one day a week, so they fit in other classes I for that time slot. "I have AP Slinging today," I replied. "What do you guys have?"

Mark and Luke had advanced slinging classes that period as well, but not as advanced as AP Slinging for some reason that I couldn't think of.

"I wonder what that's about," I thought out loud.

"I have AP Slinging, too," Emma told me once she found her schedule for that day on her Data Pad. "Hey, check it out. Your aunt's teaching that course."

"What?" I checked my schedule. Sure enough, it shows that Aunt Karina teaches that class.

"You were probably chosen for that class because of your scores on the Slinging section of the test," Luke replied.

We just shrugged and took care of our trays before heading out to our Mechas.

"See you guys later!" we told Mark and Luke when we left. Emma and I raced each other to the building and I beat her by a couple seconds, so I was in a pretty good mood as we walked into the classroom. Of the students there, Emma and I were the only ones of our age in there. Everyone else was older than us, but all were new.

A few minutes after we were seated Aunt Karina walked in, and the entire room fell silent. It was so quiet you could hear a slug blink, and believe me, that's quiet.

"Hello. I will be your teacher for this class. You may call me Professor Shane or Ms. Shane. If you refer to me by anything else, I will not answer," she told the class. She stopped behind a pedestal with a bunch of papers scattered on it. "You have been selected to be in this class because you are the only ones to get a score of 100 on the Slugslinging portion of you tests two days ago," she explained. "On that note, congratulations on doing so well on the test. Like your schedules said, the only things you require for this class are your blasters, your slugs, and your minds. At the end of this school year, I am going to hold a competition. Every student in all of my classes will compete against each other, and the people who win in each class will face each other. The winner of the entire competition will win a rare slug. I have yet to determine what the prize for this year will be yet, but it will be worth it."

After that she discussed the most common tactics used by Slugslingers to give us a base of knowledge before playing a video that displays them all. She pointed out how they were used in the battle before moving on to the next one. Right before the end of class she ended the movie and asked if we had any questions.

"I will see you all again two days from now, on Thursday," she told us right as the bell rang.

"Aunt…I mean, Ms. Shane," I said, approaching her once everyone else had left.

"You can call me 'Aunt Karina' outside class, Jake," she told me with a smile. "What is it?"

"Is it okay if I talk to you during lunch about something?" I asked her. "I don't want to talk about it here."

"Sure," she replied. "Just come by the Arena during your lunch period. I always practice there during lunch."

"'Kay. Thanks," I told her. "See ya later!" I added as I ran out to make it to my next class.

When lunch came by I grabbed a quick lunch for on-the-go eating and rode Stryder to the Arena with my friends, since they insisted on coming with me.

"Why do you think she practices during lunch?" Mike asked us as we walked through the doors to the Arena.

"It's the only time it's this empty," Emma explained. "Almost everyone is at the cafeteria, so the Arena's practically empty."

Right as she finished talking we walked into the Arena and narrowly missed being hit by Saphira, who flew by.

"Hey there!" Aunt Karina yelled, approaching us and catching a protoform-Saphira. "You guys okay?" she asked us, looking for injuries.

"No, we're fine," Luke replied.

"What is it you needed to talk to me about?" Aunt Karina asked me, holstering her blaster as she spoke.

I explained what happened to Luke and I that morning.

"I think I know what the student was talking about," she said after a minute of thinking. "You can't repeat any of this to _anybody_, you understand?" she asked all of us.

We nodded and she continued. "Over the past few years the teachers have heard of a sort of…black market growing on campus."

"What kind of black market?" I asked her.

"Slugs," she replied. "Mainly some of the more rare ones, but just about any powerful slug will do. We haven't been able to find any more information than that, though. I've tried to spy on the market transactions, but they always change the location and use special technology that camouflages their appearances and voices, so we can't pin it down on anybody, either."

"What should I do, then?" I asked her.

"Do you want to know what _I_ think you should do or what your _father_ thinks you should do?" she replied.

"I came to you for advice," I reminded her.

"Good point," she said. "This may be our only chance of putting an end to this so-called 'black market'. I think you should go, but with me nearby in case anything happens," she advised me. "You could get hurt, though," she warned me. "This could be very dangerous for you."

"Oh, I'll be fine," I told her, dismissing her fears. "It'll be at the back entrance to Enigmo Hall."

Her eyes narrowed. "Are you sure they said 'Enigmo Hall'?" she demanded.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I replied. "Why?"

"That's where all of the University's slugs are held," she told me. "I'll call them to make sure that they increase their security. You guys should get going to your next class before you're late."

"You know, this is a bad idea," Mark told me as we emerged from the Arena.

"Oh, it'll be fine," I assured him, waving aside his worries. "Besides, I'll have Aunt Karina to back me up."

That night I set my alarm to about thirty minutes before midnight so that I would have enough time to get ready for the meet.

"Good luck," Luke mumbled, barely awake as I walked out of the room fifteen minutes before the meeting.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11—The Meeting

Thanks everyone for the great reviews! Don't be afraid to leave a review. I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. Thanks again to the person who lent me her OC. You know who you are.

"If your father finds out about this, I was against it from the beginning," Aunt Karina told me, appearing by my side suddenly as I passed through some shadows.

"Well, let's hope he doesn't find out," I replied, startled by her sudden appearance.

She nodded and disappeared as quickly as she appeared.

"I think you guys should stay in your tubes," I told Speedy and Yang. The rest of my slugs stayed behind in my room so that they would stay safe. They nodded and jumped into their tubes.

When I reached the front of Enigmo Hall I stuck to the shadows as I made my way around to the back. Thinking back on it, I'm glad my clothes are so dark, or else I would've easily been seen by anybody nearby.

When I reached the back of the building I found a box with holes punched into the top.

I picked up the box and opened it. Inside were four slugs, and all of them looked scared out of their minds.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked them. They just shrank back in fear. That's when I noticed a note.

I set down the box and picked up the note from the floor, reading it. It read: _This is just a taster. If you are still interested, go to the statue of Will Shane at midnight one week from today._

I placed the note in my pocket and held out my hand to the slugs. "It's okay," I assured them. "I won't hurt you. I'm Eli Shane's son. I'll keep you safe and find you good homes." Speedy and Yang jumped out of their tubes and onto my hand to convince the slugs to come with me.

The slugs eventually nodded and jumped onto my hand.

"It would be unfair to keep all of you," I told them. "I'll give one of you to each of my friends," I added. They smiled and chirped. The four of them consisted of a Forgesmelter, a Makobreaker, a Lavalynx, and a Tazerling.

Once they were all in slug tubes I grabbed the tube containing the Forgesmelter. "Would you like to join my team?" I asked him.

The slug contemplated it for a second before nodding and jumping onto my hand.

"How about I call you…Scorch?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"Looks like tonight was inconclusive," Aunt Karina said, appearing next to me suddenly as I made my way back to Shane Hall.

"Yep," I replied. "Do you want me to give the slugs to the University since they were obtained illegally?"

She shrugged. "Consider it a 'thank you' for helping me with this," she told me. "I like that fact that you're sharing them, though."

"Thanks."

She left again and I kept going to my dorm room. As I walked I began thinking about who to give each slug to. Luke would probably like the Lavalynx, Emma would love the Tazerling due to her cuteness and power, and Mark would like the Makobreaker because of the rarity of seeing a Makobreaker slug so far from a large source of water.

When I got back to the dorm room Luke was deeply asleep, so I set the slug tube with the Lavalynx on his dresser. "I hope you like him, little guy," I told the slug. "He's a good slinger, and is nice to his slugs."

He nodded and thanked me before jumping out of the tube and falling asleep on Luke's pillow.

"I'll give you guys to your new slingers tomorrow," I told the other two slugs. "For tonight, though, you can sleep with me."

They cheered and climbed onto the pillow next to my head. My beanie was already occupied by Blaster and Stinger. I didn't have the heart to take them out while they were sleeping.

"Good night, guys," I told them.

That morning I woke up and found that my slugs were scattered all over my bed, from near my feet to on my head. Literally. I woke up with Speedy sleeping on my forehead.

"Well, that's new," I said, lifting Speedy and setting him on the pillow.

"Is this your Lavalynx?" Luke asked me, lifting the slug and showing it to me.

"Nope, it's yours," I replied. "Nobody was at the meeting spot at midnight, but instead I found four slugs. I don't want them all, so I'm giving them to you guys," I explained.

"You didn't need to do that," he insisted.

"I wanted to. Think of it as a gift."

He raised his eyebrows at me but shrugged and set the Lavalynx on the dresser. "I think I'll call you Melter. How does that sound?" he asked the slug. It nodded, so Melter hopped over to his other slugs and introduced himself.

"Let's get going so that we won't be late," Luke told me when we were ready to go.

I grabbed my backpack, holstered my blaster, and grabbed all my slugs.

"What happened last night?" Mark asked me when Emma and he saw us approaching. "Who's leading everything?"

"Nobody was there, but I have a surprise for you two," I told them. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

They did as I said and I set the Makobreaker in Mark's hands and the Tazerling in Emma's hands.

"Open your eyes," I told them. They did and gasped when they saw the slug.

"This is awesome!" Mark said. "I've never seen a Makobreaker slug this close before."

Emma's reaction was just what I expected. "Oh! She's so cute!" Emma squealed, rubbing the Tazerling's head.

"They're yours," I told them. "I figured you would like them. Those slugs along with a Lavalynx and a Forgesmelter were at the spot. Aunt Karina let me keep them, so I gave you guys those slugs and the Lavalynx to Luke," I added, gesturing to the Lavalynx in Luke's bandolier. I showed them Scorch.

"How about I name you Chomper?" Mark asked his Makobreaker. The slug nodded and jumped into one of his slug tubes. Emma named her Tazerling 'Volt' and called it cute one more time before placing her in a slug tube.

After that we walked the short distance to the cafeteria to eat a nice breakfast as we checked our schedules.

"Looks like we've got some free-time," Mark said. "I've got a study hall right now."

"So do I," I added. Luke and Emma also had study halls, which are basically free-periods that we can do anything in, so we raced each other to the Arena to practice some more.

"Hey, Jake," Emma said as we entered the Arena. "Wanna duel?"

"Sure," I replied. I made sure my entire team was awake and ready before we walked to an area of the Arena and faced each other.

"Good luck, Shane," she told me.

"You too, Walker," I replied, loading Stinger into my blaster. She loaded Lucky and, when Mark signaled, began.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12—Duel!

Thanks everyone for the great reviews!

She launched Lucky at me, but I used Stinger to rebound him back at her. She managed to dodge and launched Slimer at me. It launched a large pile of sticky goo at my feet and when I tried to take a step ended up falling, but I was able to recover and shoot Yang at her. He surrounded her in a cloud of darkness, which prevented her from seeing so that I could load Stinger, who had returned, and tie her to the ground.

"I win," I said confidently. When the darkness faded, though, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Not so fast," she said, standing next to me with Bruiser aimed at my head.

"Quite right," I replied. I dove to the ground and used my legs to sweep her feet out from beneath her, knocking her to the ground. In her surprise she launched Bruiser into midair, which meant that in the time it took her to reload I had loaded Scorch and pointed him at her head.

"All right, you win," she admitted. I stood up and helped her to her feet. Her knee buckled halfway up, though, and almost hit her head on the ground when I caught her in my arms.

"Thanks," she told me, blushing slightly.

"No problem," I replied, trying not to stare too long as I helped her back to her feet.

"You're good, Shane," a voice behind us said, clapping slowly. "I'll give you that much."

I spun around and found myself face-to-face with John Martin, the best slinger on campus.

"Thanks, Martin," I replied, picking up my blaster and cleaning the dirt from it.

"You're not quite _my_ level, but given enough practice, you might get close," he said, flicking an imaginary piece of dirt from his shoulder.

"Yeah, sure," I said sarcastically. "What're you doing here, anyway?"

"Practicing, like you guys," he told us. "What else?"

"Good point," I muttered. "What do you study here?"

"Slugslinging," he replied. "I'm in the most advanced courses," he added, spinning his blaster around like it was nothing. A Hop Rock in his bandolier nodded to emphasize the point. "I _am_ the best slinger here."

"Oh, give me a break," Luke said with a sigh.

"You're technically not the best slinger here," Mark commented.

Martin paused. "_What did you say?_" he demanded.

"You said you're the best slinger here, as in this University," Mark said. "Some of the professors are better slingers than you."

Martin, apparently not used to people disagreeing with him, looked shocked. "Oh, yeah? Name one," he growled menacingly.

"Karina Shane," I said casually. "She could easily beat you in a duel."

"Professor Shane?" Martin said with a laugh. "She hasn't dueled in years. I could take her, no problem."

"Don't be so sure about that," Aunt Karina said, appearing out of the shadows. I figured she would have a free period right then, and I know she likes to spend time in the Arena to train.

"M-M-Ms. S-S-Shane!" he stuttered, surprised. "I didn't know you would be here!"

"I can tell by the dumb look on your face," she replied. "You'd better be prepared to put your money where you mouth is, 'cause you've got yourself a duel."

Martin looked scared out of his mind, but managed to recover his cocky attitude. "It's on," he growled with a fake grin.

"You ready, guys?" she asked her slugs. They nodded and Martin started off by firing a rapid-fire series of Hop Rocks, Armashelts, and Rammstones. Aunt Karina managed to launch them all back with Volts, her Voltnet slug, and Weaver, her Arachnet. A Voltnet slug is a cross breed of an Arachnet and a Tazerling slug. They look pretty impressive in battle.

Martin took cover behind a boulder, but it was soon demolished by the slugs, leaving him stand there in the open.

Aunt Karina finished off the battle with Saphira, who left him cowering on the ground to avoid the flames.

"I surrender! I s-s-s-surrender!" he whimpered.

"That was it?" she asked him. "A five-year-old could've given me a more impressive duel. You may be a good slinger, Mr. Martin, but you need to keep confident and level-headed during a match, or you will lose just as easily as you did right now."

As Aunt Karina's slugs returned to her Martin sprinted out of the Arena.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Emma declared. "The way you beat him without breaking a sweat, always keeping your cool."

Aunt Karina smiled. "Thank you. Now, we should get going. The bell will ring soon."

As she walked out the bell rang.

"How is it she always seems to know what's going to happen?" Mark asked me.

"Honestly, I ask myself that question all the time," I admitted. We split up for our next classes and got back into the rhythm of the day. The most interesting part of the day was a Slinging course, where the professor told the class that he would be holding a slinging competition the next day for the students in that class. It wouldn't be a large competition and there would be no prize for the winner, but everyone was getting excited nevertheless.

"I already know whom I've got my bet on for the winner," somebody behind us muttered. I looked behind me and saw that the student was looking in my direction.

"Wow," Luke commented. "Looks like being a Shane comes with high expectations."

I shrugged. "We all have an equal chance of winning," I told them. "You just have to believe that it's possible, and you can do anything."

"Exactly, Mr. Shane," the professor said. He must have heard me talking to my friends. "You all have the ability to win, but you need to have the confidence to do it."

After that he continued his lesson about the multiple uses for slugs in different circumstances, and how even a Flopper can be useful in battle.

"Slugs can be useful in many different ways," he told us. "Even a Flopper can be used in a battle."

A snort of laughter emanated from the back of the room.

"Is there something you would like to share with the rest of the class, Mr. James?" the Professor asked Rob.

"Yeah, there is," Rob said, rising to his feet. "Floppers are absolutely useless slugs. They can't even transform, so how could they be used in battle?"

"Multiple ways," the professor told us. "For example, Floppers…" He gave a speech about the uses of Floppers in battle for the rest of class, so everyone was glad when the bell rang to signal the end of class.

After that class I had a free period so I did my homework and rode my Mecha around the campus to check it out more before ending up in front of the statue of Will Shane.

I stopped Stryder and looked up at the monolithic stone figure, thinking how proud he'd be of Eli. I was there for about thirty seconds before the bell rang again and I moved on to my next class.

The next day the four of us were excited about the competition to be held later that day, and the classes seemed to seep by sluggishly, as if they wanted to keep us from the competition.

"Who here is going to compete in the competition later today?" Mr. Mann asked us before one of his classes that I'm in was dismissed. Three or four of us raised our hands. "Well, good luck today, and may the best slinger win," he told us.

We nodded and ran out of the classroom to our next class, which had the competition.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13—Contest, Part 1

Thanks everyone for the great reviews! I would also like to thank Vinyl Rose for letting me use her OC.

Once everyone was gathered at the classroom the professor led us to the Arena, where a bunch of other students were sitting in the bleachers, apparently watching it during their free period.

"Thank you all for coming to watch this competition!" Mr. Mann told the audience. They cheered before he shushed them and gathered around us, clipboard in hand.

"Okay, I'll make the first round two-on-two duels," he told us. "I already teamed you up based on how you work together, so you should be pleased with the teams."

He read the list of teams off his paper, and the four of us were pleased by who we had as our partners. I was partnered with Luke and Mark was with Emma.

The first duel was Luke and I versus Rob's friends, whom I've nicknamed 'the twins'.

"Are you ready?" Luke asked me as everyone else walked off to a sheltered area.

"Yeah." I slid my glasses down so that they were in front of my nose and zoomed the camera on them so that I could check the twins' slugs. "One of them has a Frostcrawler, Rammstone, Hop Rock and Polero. The other has a Tazerling, Bubbaleone, Tormato and a Grenuke," I added.

"Thanks," Luke replied before Mr. Mann fired a Phosphoro as a signal to begin.

"Split up!" Luke shouted when one of the twins fired his Polero slug at us, most likely to try and keep us in one spot.

We dove to the side and I loaded and fired Blaster. He launched his odd grenade-things and landed about twenty feet behind them.

"What are these supposed to be?" one of the twins shouted at me while the other laughed and nudged one of the spheres with his foot. They obviously had no experience with Blastipede slugs.

I winked at Blaster and he nodded, allowing his antennae to touch. The resulting explosions were more than enough to win us the duel.

"Good job there, Blaster," I congratulated the slug as we went to the bench.

"That was a quick battle," Mark commented as we sat down beside them.

"Thanks," I said. "It would've lasted longer if Luke hadn't seen the Polero, though," I added, trying to pass on some of the glory to Luke.

Luke just shrugged as we watched the next few duels. Rob and his partner demolished the other team, taking them out with a large volley of Rammstones and Armashelts. Mark and Emma took out their opponents fairly quickly as well, moving them on to the next round.

"Congratulations on winning the round," Mr. Mann told those of us who were able to move on. "I've already set up matches for next round. The first duel will be…" He paused a moment to check his list before announcing, "Rob James and Eli Shane."

"Finally, somebody can show this guy he's not the best," I said with a smile. I made sure all my slugs were ready before going out onto the field across from Rob.

From what I could tell of his slugs, they were two Hop Rocks, an Armashelt, a Rammstone, and a Frostcrawler slug. That meant we were equal in terms of amount of slugs, but I was confident my slugs could win the battle.

The moment Mr. Mann shot his Phosphoro to signal us to begin Rob launched one of his Hop Rocks, but I used Stinger to take it down and then launched Yang to surround him in pure blackness. He struggled to get out of the cloud, and as I loaded Scorch he managed to shoot his Frostcrawler at me.

"Perfect," I muttered. As the Frostcrawler approached I shot Scorch back at it and melted the ice it launched, tackling the Frostcrawler in the process.

As the darkness faded I sprinted towards Rob, loading Speedy and stopping just in time so that by the time Rob could see clearly I had Speedy aimed right at his head.

"Do you surrender?" I asked him with a scowl.

"Never," he sneered. He dove to the left and I shot Speedy, although he missed by an inch.

In the time it took me to recover he had his Armashelt aimed at my head.

"Do _you_ surrender?" he asked me.

I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a silver and orange blur approach. "Nope," I said. "In fact, I'm gonna win this duel," I added right before Speedy came through and knocked Rob's blaster out of his hand. He cursed and dove for it, but I managed to scoop up Speedy, back in protoform, and launched him at Rob's blaster, knocking it to the other end of the Arena but not damaging it at all.

Only when I had launched Stinger to tie up had Rob surrendered, but he did it with great anger.

"Good job with the ricocheting there, bud," I told Speedy as I gathered my slugs and thanked them all for the great job. "I thought I was actually going to lose when you saved the day."

He just chirped and acted like it was no big deal, but I could tell he was elated by the great job.

As Mr. Mann untied Rob I returned to the bench to talk with my friends and watch the other duels.

"That girl's not bad," Luke commented as we watch Mark battle a girl around 12 years old. She was wearing a black singlet, blue hooded hoodie, black boots, and red and black shorts. Her favorite slug was a Thugglet that I heard her call 'Angel' a few times, and had a few other slugs like a Frostcrawler, Tazerling, and Bubbaleone. She had used Angel to escape from a few close situations. She finally managed to beat Mark by freezing his hand with the blaster to the ground and aiming her Tazerling at him.

"Okay, okay," Mark said. "You win. Now, can somebody unfreeze my hand?"

She just laughed and fired a Flaringo to melt the ice.

"And the winner is Vinyl Rose!" Mr. Mann announced. The girl, Vinyl, nodded and walked back to the bench.

The other two members of the team managed to move on to the next round, defeating a couple older kids. Before we could continue to the next round, though, the bell rang to end the class.

"Hey, good job out there," I said to Vinyl, catching up with her as everyone rushed out. "I'm Jacob Shane."

"Hi," she replied. Before I could say anything more the girl that broke into my room and tried to get me into the black market walked up to Vinyl.

"How'd the competition go?" the girl asked Vinyl.

"It went good. I've gotten through to the third round," Vinyl replied.

"Hey," I said, trying to talk to the girl.

She wouldn't let me get any further than that, though. She set off with Vinyl for their next class and I stared after them, speechless.

"Who was that?" Emma asked when she caught up with me.

"The girl that broke into our dorm room," I replied. "I was talking to Vinyl and they just took off together."

"Do you think Vinyl could be involved?" Emma asked me.

"I don't know," I replied. "She doesn't look like the type to get involved in that kind of stuff, but it's hard to know for sure."

"Yeah, well, we're gonna be late for class if you don't hurry!" she told me, checking the time. She was right. We had about a minute to get to class, and the class is at the other end of campus.

"Our Mechas are still at the Res. Halls!" she cursed.

I pressed a button on my Holo-Glasses remote and soon we could see my Mecha approaching.

Once it arrived I jumped on. "Climb on!" I told her, holding out my hand. She grabbed it and I swung her up onto the seat behind me, making sure her hands were around me to keep her secure before hitting the throttle.

We managed to get to Will Shane Hall, the hall for Slugslinging courses, and were in our seats less than a second before the bell rang.

"Hello, class," Aunt Karina said as she entered.

As she did attendance Speedy hopped up to my ear and chirped in it with a light giggle.

"No, I do not have a crush on her!" I hissed quietly back. He just giggled a bit louder and made kissing noises.

I just frowned and put him in his slug tube.

When Aunt Karina finished attendance she went to her teaching podium.

"I realize that almost none of you probably realize what this class is about, except for those of you who have been in this class before," Aunt Karina said. "In case you didn't know, this class is known as 'Slug Research'. This class works together with the 'Mecha Research' along with the other classes with the name 'Research' in it for one goal: to help create a better understanding of the 99 Caverns. At the end of this school year, all of these classes will go on a group trip to one of the less-known caverns and record everything we can about it. It will be something all of us will look forward too, since this will be the first time we have done this."

There was hushed discussion about it for a few seconds before Aunt Karina silenced them. However, our slugs kept talking until her own slugs quieted them.

"Now, the cavern we will be visiting this year will be one that very little is known about, due to how hard it is to reach," she said. "There's not even a name for it, but I have managed to find some pictures and a map to it." She pulled up a few pictures of cavern that seems to have multiple canyons carved through it and a map that showed a path through several other caverns, such as Deaddrop Cavern, Deadweed Cavern, Slagrock Cavern, and even Dark Periphery Cavern.

"This part will be the hardest," she told us, pointing to the part that goes through Dark Periphery Cavern. "The Shadow Clan controls this cavern, but fortunately they will let us pass as long as we don't disturb anything. If you do not wish to go through with this, leave now and do not return to this class," she added, looking at all of us.

Five kids from the group of twenty kids stood up and walked out. John Martin almost walked out, but when he saw that Aunt Karina was watching him he sat back down, probably to prove that he's tough.

"Now, for the first semester of this school year we will be studying everything we know about this cavern, and in the second semester leading up to the trip itself we will plan everything," she explained. "The specific role of this class is to provide protection from anything that tries to attack us, so planning the trip will involve setting up schedules for protection shifts for all of us in the class."

Once she finished explaining it she handed out thick note packets for us to fill out using the notes she would put up on the screen as she spoke. By the end of the semester the packets would be full.

I was actually surprised by the fact that she's teaching the course. Whenever she visited she wouldn't talk excessively, only get straight to the point. As it turns out, that's exactly what she did. She didn't draw out anything unnecessary, only saying what we needed to know. Unfortunately, there was actually quite a bit to be known about this cavern, although it's nothing compared to the caverns that are named and more commonly used.

After that class the rest of the day seemed to fly by as we waited for the next part of the competition, which was actually the next day, same class period.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14—Contest, Part Two.

Thanks everyone for the awesome reviews! Don't be afraid to leave a review, I love the comments. Thanks again those of you who have lent me your OCs. I don not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs.

The first few periods seemed to drag on as we all waited impatiently for the competition to continue, and when it did there was a race for everyone participating to get to the Arena.

"Congratulations those of you who made it this far," Mr. Mann told the eight of us remaining. "The first match will be…" He read two names off the list. It included Vinyl Rose and a kid a year older than her. She looked a bit nervous as the rest of us walked off the Arena floor, but the look soon disappeared as they began slinging slugs back and forth.

They dueled for several minutes. In the final seconds, though, she used Angel, her Thugglet slug, to create seven or eight other copies of herself. As her opponent began taking out copies, the real Vinyl along with her copies loaded a Tazerling and aimed it at him. Not wanting to take the chance of taking out a copy instead of the real Vinyl, he surrendered.

"Congrats," I told Vinyl as I walked out for my duel, which was next against Emma.

"Wanna see if you can change your luck?" I asked Emma confidently as we walked onto the field.

"Yep," she said.

The moment Mr. Mann fired his Phosphoro Emma fired Volt at me, but I managed to dodge it and launched Stinger back at her. Unfortunately she jumped out of the way and shot Lucky, who hit me. All of a sudden I felt horrible. I felt like, no matter what I did, I would lose, so I let her hit me with Slimer and was about to throw down my blaster and surrender when Speedy and Yang got me back to normal, telling me that I could do anything if I just believed.

"You're right guys, thanks," I told them. I straightened up and wiped off the slime before jumping away Bruiser, who Emma had just launched at me. I launched Yang back followed by Speedy. Yang surrounded her in a cloud of pure blackness, and Speedy caused her blaster to jam long enough for me to get right up to her and aim Scorch at her, causing her to surrender.

"You're not bad, Shane," she told me, punching my arm as we walked off the field.

"Same to you, Walker," I replied. I made sure I had all my slugs and thanked them for such a good job before joining everyone else at the bench.

Luke ended up winning his duel along with a 17-year-old that seemed to have considerably powerful and skilled slugs.

"The first duel of the finals will be Lucas Jones and Vinyl Rose," Mr. Mann announced.

"Good luck dealing with her illusions," I shouted after him as they walked onto the field.

He just chuckled and walked across from her.

"Good luck, kid," Luke said politely.

"You're the one who'll need it," she replied.

When Mr. Mann shot his Phosphoro again Vinyl led off by launching Angel, who created multiple versions of herself, just standing there casually with her arms crossed.

Luke just smiled and launched Typhoon.

"Genius," Mark muttered.

"What is?" I asked him.

"By using a Tormato slug, the resulting tornado can redirect itself and destroy all copies before eventually grabbing the slinger," he explained.

The real Vinyl realized this and took off running, leaving the rest of her copies to stand there while they were destroyed.

"You should never turn your back to your opponent," Luke said, launching Dune, who went underground to eventually resurface in front of Vinyl, causing her to fall down the hole he created, trapped up to her armpits, in a way she couldn't reach her slugs to launch them.

"Good try, though," Luke told her when he had been declared winner and lifted her out of the hole.

"Yeah, sure," she said unhappily, walking into the bleachers to sit with the girl from the day before.

"See you again in the championships," I told him as I walked out onto the field.

"So, you're the Shane kid I've been hearing about," my opponent commented when we were ready.

"Yep, that's me," I replied seconds before Mr. Mann's Phosphoro was launched.

Right away, he launched a powerful Rammstone at me, but I managed to dive out of the way and launch Scorch, who sent him running in circles with his butt on fire before his Aquabeek put it out. He wasn't hurt seriously, but he looked extremely mad and launched three slugs in rapid succession: Frostcrawler, Tazerling, Hop Rock.

I dove away and somehow managed to take down the Hop Rock with Stinger, but took a direct hit from the Tazerling.

As I waited for the electrocution to end, my opponent loaded a Flaringo slug and aimed it at me.

"Do you surrender?" he asked me.

"No way," I replied once I could speak normally. I dropped to the ground and spun my legs around, taking his legs out like I had done with Emma. Just like she had, my opponent accidentally fired his Flaringo where I had been standing so that I had loaded Speedy and aimed him at my opponent before he could recover.

"Okay, I yield," he said.

"Why is it everyone falls for that trick?" I thought out loud as Mr. Mann congratulated me.

"I'm sorry, but there are no prizes for winning," he told me.

"It's okay. I don't mind," I assured him.

"You're getting good, Jake," Aunt Karina said, appearing next to me. "You need more slugs and you can become a force to be reckoned with, though."

"Thanks, Aunt Karina," I replied. She nodded and walked out of the Arena to get ready for a class.

Classes after that day went by normally, but on Friday everyone was excited to go home and visit families.

"I can't wait to see my parents!" Emma squealed during lunch on Friday. "They'll be so proud of the slugs I've gotten."

In that short time we had each acquired a new slug while checking out the town in the cavern and the rest of the cavern in our free time. I got a Tazerling, which I named Tesla, Luke got a Frostcrawler named Subzero, Mark found an Aquabeek that he soon named 'Squirt', and Emma got a Hoverbug named Streak.

"Where does your family live?" I asked her.

"Out in Quiet Lawn Cavern," she replied. "What about you, Mark? Where do you live?"

"Futuria Cavern," he said. "My Dad is a professor there. Where's your home cavern, Luke?"

"It's one of the numerous unnamed caverns," he said. "It's located between Snowdance Cavern and Tusker Forks Cavern."

"Cool."

After the last of our classes ended Luke and I reached our dorm room at the same time. We made sure we had all our slugs and whatever we'd need before leaving, making sure that everything was locked up before leaving for our Mechas.

"See ya Monday!" I shouted at him as we left campus, heading in different directions.

When I reached the edge of Bullseye Cavern I slid down my Holo-Glasses in front of my eyes and turned on the communication system. Part of the right-side of the frame detached with a _click_ and I turned it on a hidden hinge so that it was in front of my mouth and to the side, working as the microphone as part of the earpiece on the other side twisted to allow me to fit it into my ear, turning it into the earpiece.

"Do you think they'll be home?" I asked Speedy and Yang as I called the communication system at home.

They shrugged and I waited patiently for somebody to pick up. If Eli or Trixie aren't home one of the slugs usually answers.

Sure enough, a few seconds later a slug answered with a questioning chip. "Who is this?" the slug asked. I automatically identified it as Noodle, Eli's Flopper slug.

"Hey, there, Noodle. It's Jake," I replied. The microphone was soon flooded by the chirps of several slugs. From what I could hear, among them were Doc and Driller.

"Hey, one at a time," I told them. They hushed and Doc asked me what I needed.

"I just wanted to know if Eli or Trixie are there," I replied.

"No, they left an hour ago to go grocery shopping," he replied. "Why?"

"Well, my last class ended a few minutes ago so I'm on my way home. If they get back before me, don't tell them I called. I want it to be a surprise," I explained.

They let me know they would keep it a secret and told me that they couldn't wait for me to get home before ending the call.

"Let's not disappoint them," I told my slugs. I hit the throttle and Strider went from a walk to an almost full sprint.

The extra energy soon paid off. We arrived at the Hideout less than an hour later, cutting the travel time in half.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15—Back Home

Thanks for the reviews!

When I arrived at the Hideout, nobody was around. Eli and Trixie's Mecha's weren't in the garage, so I parked Strider right next to the door, where I usually do, and walked through the door

Before I could even close the door behind me Doc, Noodle, Digger, Joules, Bolo, and Burner were crowding around me, making it nearly impossible to walk without stepping on a slug.

"Whoa, watch out there," I told them as I carefully made my way through the group while carrying a bag of dirty clothes that had to be cleaned.

"How's it been at the University?" Joules asked me.

"It's been good," I replied. I introduced the new members of my team and all of my slugs joined the rest to play. Stuntz appeared when he heard Speedy chirping. They're good friends.

I took my bags up to my room, but while I was up there I heard the garage open again and two Mechas enter.

"Jake?" Trixie asked as the two of them walked into the house.

"Surprise!" I said, walking out of my room and down the stairs.

Trixie tossed her bags onto the kitchen table and hugged me.

"I missed you too, Mom," I told her.

"What're you doing home?" Eli asked me.

"Classes ended earlier so I decided to come home for the weekend. My friends did the same," I replied.

"I'm so glad you're home, Jake," Trixie said as we began to take care of the groceries. The slugs they had with them joined the rest and welcomed me home as well.

When everything was taken care of I introduced my new slugs to my parents.

"A Forgesmelter, huh?" Eli asked me. "Where'd you find it? They're pretty rare."

I shrugged. "I found it wandering around the cavern alone, and asked him if he wanted to join my team. He said yes, so here he is," I said, coming up with a story on the spot. I felt bad about lying to Eli, but I didn't want to tell him about the black market.

"Okay."

A few minutes later I started to get bored so I said, "Hey, Dad."

"Yeah, Jake?" he replied, turning towards me. He knew the smile on my face and knew the answer before I even had a chance to ask.

"Wanna duel?" I asked him.

"Sure," he replied. He grabbed Burpy, Joules, Bolo, Suds, Chiller, Buzzsaw, Spinner, Mucky, and Rookie as I gathered my team.

"Don't get hurt!" Trixie warned us, following us outside to the cavern floor.

"Don't take it easy on me this time," I told him.

"You asked for it," he said before launching Chiller at me. I replied with Scorch and sent Yang back, who surrounded Eli in a cloud of impenetrable darkness.

"It'll take more than that to beat me," he told me, emerging and launching Buzzsaw at my waist. I dove to the side and launched Stinger back. He just dodged out o the way and shot a Bolo, Spinner, and Joules at me, in that order.

I jumped over Bolo, but that just got me caught in Spinner's web so that Joules could zap me and render me immobile all at once.

"You've gotten better," he said as he approached casually.

"Yes, yes I have," I replied, aiming Speedy just right that he shot through the webbing and jammed Eli's blaster. He easily fixed it, though, and sent Burpy back at me, even going as far as Mega-Morphing him so that I had no choice but to surrender.

"Are you okay, Jake?" Trixie asked me when Burpy returned to protoform and landed on Eli's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. Before we could say any more, though, we heard blaster fire approach us and were barely able to duck before a Rammstone, Hop Rock, and Armashelt came through the trees at us.

"What now?" Eli groaned as we got ready for a fight.

"Eeeeliiiiiiiiii!" a voice rang out. "Oh Eeeeeeeeeliiiiiiiiiiiii! Where are you?" it continued.

"Do you recognize the voice?" I asked him.

"Yeah. It's Billy, from the Hooligang," he replied.

"Hooligang? I thought the split up twenty years ago," I said.

"We came back together for a little reunion," Glasses said as the three of them emerged into the clearing, blasters drawn.

"You know you could never beat me in a duel, Billy," Eli said confidently. "What makes you feel any differently now?"

"This little guy does," Billy snapped, holding up a RoboSlug confidently.

"Where did you get that?" Trixie demanded. "We destroyed the last ones a year ago."

"We found a bunch of them out in Scrapheap Cavern," Shorty said. "_Now_ who's the better slinger?"

"Still the Shane Gang," Eli said, quickly launching Burpy. Before Burpy could even get out a fireball, though, Billy fired the RoboSlug, which shot out a gush of water at Burpy, extinguishing his flame.

As they began opening fire on us we began shooting regular slugs back. They didn't seem to be paying attention to the modes they were having the slugs use, though, so one shot a stream of water at Chiller, who froze the RoboSlug solid. A Blade-mode RoboSlug was used against Bluster, who simply shot it back at them, and another launched a RoboSlug in Water-Mode, shooting a stream of water at Tesla, who just electrocuted the robot.

"Your kid's not bad," Billy commented. "Does he know how to fly, though?" He launched another RoboSlug, but this time it came and me and picked me up, taking me about fifty feet into the air before letting go.

"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed as I fell to my possible death.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16—Falling

Thanks everyone for the reviews. Thanks also to PLAINAWESOME for lending me his OC.

As I fell I thought I was actually going to die before a familiar Bubbaleone slug caught me and floated me safely to the ground. It was Suds. I watched as Eli and Trixie tied up the Hooligang and confiscated their RoboSlugs.

"Thanks, bud," I told Suds when I managed to pop him. He chirped a 'You're welcome' and went back to Eli.

"Oh, thank god you're safe," Trixie said when they saw me. She made sure I was okay, and when everything checked out we went through the RoboSlugs Eli confiscated.

"What's this?" I asked them, pointing out a small red 'V' on the backs of one of the RoboSlugs.

Eli picked it out of my hands and, when he got a good look at it, flung it on the ground and crushed it with his foot.

"What was it?" I asked him.

He ignored my question and dragged Billy to his feet. "Where is he?" Eli demanded. "Tell me!"

"Eli? What's going on?" Trixie asked him, concerned.

He found another RoboSlug with the marking on it and showed it to her.

"That never appeared on a RoboSlug before now," he said. "This means only one thing."

"Blakk…?"

Eli just nodded.

I heard enough stories about the infamous Doctor Blakk to give me countless nightmares about the things he did to slugs, twisting them and turning them evil and wicked.

"Doctor Blakk's dead, right?" I asked them. "You guys told me he died when he fell back down to the Deep Caverns."

"We said that he _most likely_ died," Trixie said. "We never found out for sure. He's never returned, as far as we know."

"Thaddeus Blakk _is_ dead," Billy growled. "Has been for over twenty years."

"Where'd you get these Slugs, then?" Eli demanded.

"That would be from me," a cold and unfamiliar voice said from behind us.

We turned around and Eli's face turned pale as a sheet. "Blakk…" he said. From pictures I had seen of Doctor Thaddeus Blakk, they did look very similar, but this person was slightly taller, not as pale and not as broad chested. He even had a version of Blakk's blaster at his side.

"How are you alive?" Trixie demanded.

"Oh, the Blakk you're thinking about is long dead," he said. "My name is Leon Blakk, and I am going to avenge my father's death."

Before we could say or do anything else he loaded a strange, twisted slug into his blaster and fired.

"It's a ghoul!" Eli shouted as we dove out of the way.

"What? I thought you cured the last ghouls years ago?" I asked them.

"I managed to recover my father's technique of ghouling slugs," Blakk said. "Now, it is time for the Shanes to fall."

"You may have ghouls, but you've no idea how to use them," Eli said, loading Joules and Mega-Morphing him.

"Oh, but I do," he replied, firing a Mega-Morphed Thrasher slug back at us. It split the trees we were behind in two, leaving us to scramble for cover.

"Jacob, go back to the house and tell the slugs to activate the security systems!" Eli told me. "Now!"

I ran towards the house, but before I could get far I heard a slug fired behind me so I had to dive to the ground.

"Looks like your boy has much to learn about slinging," Blakk said to Eli. "Shall I teach him?"

"You hurt him, and I swear there will be no place for you to hide," Trixie growled. Blakk fired a Hop Jack at me and I fired Scorch at it, managing to take it down so that I could run to the Hideout.

"We need to activate the security system!" I told Eli and Trixie's slugs as I charged into the Hideout. They were already doing so, lining up at automatic slug launchers. Soon Blakk and the Hooligang, whom he had freed, were facing a wall of slug power, which was barely enough to make them run away.

"This is not good," Eli said when they got up to the Hideout. "We need to contact the rest of the Gang so that we can do something about the new Dr. Blakk."

"Already on it," Trixie said, pulling out a communications device.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked them.

They stopped and looked at me.

"No," Eli said when he understood what I was asking. "You are not going to get involved in this. Blakk is our fight. You just worry about school. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Eli, I can handle myself," I told him. "I'm a good slinger, the best in my class. I can deal with a few ghouls."

"This is more than a 'few ghouls'," Trixie told me. "This could destroy SlugTerra, just like last time. You should go back to the University. We need to go meet with the rest of the gang."

I argued with them for ten more minutes before Eli flipped out.

"Stop arguing with us and do as we say!" he shouted at me. "It doesn't matter if you're able or not. We want to keep you out of harm's way and keep you safe, and that includes keeping you away from Blakk!"

I was shocked. He had never raised his voice at me, so I knew he meant business.

"Okay, I'll go," I said with a sigh. "Stay safe out there."

I gathered my team again and grabbed my bags, loading them onto Stryder's cargo grate.

"See you guys," I told their slugs, waving as I left.

When I reached the edge of the cavern I heard Blakk's voice behind me again.

"So, he sent you away?" he said. "How sad. Now you're all alone out here, with nobody to protect you."

"Not quite, Leon," a familiar voice said in front of me as I began to turn around to look at Blakk.

I turned back and saw Aunt Karina standing there.

"Aunt Karina!" I said, filled with hope. I hit the throttle and Stryder launched forward, taking me to her.

When I was halfway there a Hop Jack flew over my head and detonated right in front of me, blasting me from Stryder's back.

"Jake!" Aunt Karina screamed as I fell to the ground.

I was fine, though, and stood up wearily.

"Not so fast, little Shane," Blakk told me. He fired three Grimmstones at me, and I managed to take down two with Speedy, but the third managed to get past him and right up to me.

Suddenly something snapped within me, releasing a tidal wave of power. I screamed and the Grimmstone fell back along with everyone but my slugs.

"What is this power!" Blakk muttered. "I'll have to take you with me to understand it better."

"Over my dead body," Aunt Karina said, appearing next to me.

I acted instead, loading and launching Yang at Blakk. Some of the power raging inside me pulsed into him, causing Yang to Mega-Morph with the extra speed.

"Whoa," I said as the dark cloud around Blakk trapped him long enough for us and all of our slugs to escape.

"I can't believe he'd do this," Aunt Karina commented as we rode for SlugTerra University as fast as we could. "Leon never seemed to type to act this way."

"Losing his father probably did this to him," I replied.

"What was that? What you did?" she asked me. "I've never seen that happen in somebody before. Your eyes turned bright blue and you let out tremendous amounts of energy."

"I…I don't know," I said honestly. "That's never happened before."

"We'll have to check it out when we return to campus," she told me. "Why are you coming back, anyway?"

I explained everything that happened, from the appearance of the Hooligang to when she appeared.

"This is not good, not good at all," she added simply before we entered Bullseye Cavern.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17—Not Good

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"I agree," I replied before Kord came charging past us on Wyatt.

"Watch out, coming through!" Kord shouted. We moved out of the way and watched as he passed by without another word.

"The message Eli and Trixie sent must have been pretty serious for him to be so urgent," I said. "Why didn't they call you, Aunt Karina?"

"I'm not part of the original Shane Gang," she told me. "They'll probably call me eventually, though."

We walked onto campus and I looked at Yang for the first time since he Mega-Morphed. The power I felt had receded, so I felt normal again.

"Nice look, Yang!" I told him. The dots on his forehead were a lot brighter, but he seemed to be able to control how bright they were, so it looked impressive. The dots also formed a perfect arrow, in the middle of which a line was, completing the look.

He chirped his thanks and jumped onto my head to rest a bit.

"Will you be okay at your room alone?" Aunt Karina asked me when we arrived at Shane Hall.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I replied.

"Okay. Once you put away all your things, though, I want you to meet me at me office," she told me before leaving for the Administration Building, which is located behind Enigmo Hall and Will Shane Hall.

I unloaded my bags from Stryder again and carried them into my room, which was just as Luke and I left it earlier that day.

"I hope the others got home all right," I told my slugs as we went over to the Admin Building.

"Hello, could you direct me to Professor Shane's office?" I asked a person sitting at the desk in the main hall for the building.

"Sure. Take that elevator down to the basement," he told me.

"Where do I go then?" I asked.

He laughed. "The basement _is_ her office," he replied. "She managed to persuade the president to give her an entire level to work in, as long as she has outside light coming in." There are windows at ground level that bring light into the basement.

I thanked him for the help and went over to the elevator, pressing the button labeled 'B'. Within seconds the doors opened and I walked in, closing them behind me so that it could begin its short descent.

"There you are, Jacob," Aunt Karina said when I arrived. "Come over here," she added, gesturing to the desk she was sitting at.

As I made my way over to her I looked around the room. "Whoa," I said in awe. Most of the walls were covered in bookshelves, all of which were full of books. There were countless more books scattered on tables placed around the room, which was huge itself.

She smiled. "Yeah, this place is pretty big. You get pretty used to it, though," she replied. "On this desk I have compiled ever book I own that discusses people with abilities like yours, although they only mention the abilities briefly. I need your help reading through them so that we can find an answer faster. Start with these," she told me, handing me half of the pile.

I carried the stack over to an empty desk and set them down, lifting the top one from the pile and opening it. It discussed famous creatures and humans of SlugTerra, past and present.

"Hey, you're in this book," I told her when I reached a passage about the Shanes. It discussed every Shane, from the very first one until Eli and Aunt Karina.

"Yes, I know. It was written about a year ago," she replied, turning the page in the book she was reading.

As I continued in the book my slugs left their tubes and lifted another book from my pile and tossed it next to the one I was already reading.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked them.

"Helping," they chirped back, opening the book to the first page and reading it themselves.

"You've got some smart slugs there," Aunt Karina told me.

"Thanks," I replied.

Over the course of the rest of the day we found nothing, but managed to cut the size of the pile in half, decreasing our work for the next day.

That night I called Eli and Trixie to make sure they were all right.

"Yeah, we're doing fine," Eli told me. "We're on our way to Rock Lock Cavern, where the new Dr. Blakk grew up. We want to see if anyone there knows anything about him that we could use."

"Okay. Stay safe out there. Bye," I said.

"You too. Bye," he replied, ending the call.

That night I dreamt about what happened with Leon Blakk, the ghouls, and what I did. It was bothering me that I had no idea what I did, or how I was able to do it. The power, it felt…terrifying. All that power, and I wasn't able to consciously control it, or even summon it again.

The next day I got breakfast then went straight to Aunt Karina's office to continue the search.

"Well, you're sure up early," Aunt Karina said when she entered her office and found me reading through a passage for the tenth time.

"I think I found something," I told her. She ran over to me and I set the book down so that we could read it.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18—Answers

Thanks everyone for the great reviews. Sorry it took me so long, but I managed to update! Enjoy!

"What book is this?" she asked me.

"_Myths and Legends of SlugTerra_," I told her. The passage discussed the presence of beings able to control vast amounts of energy. According to the passage, every hundred years five people are born with this ability. Two are born with great strength, one with speed, one with the ability to control technology, and one with heightened intelligence. All of them have the ability to supercharge their slugs.

"So…I'm one of these five people?" I asked Aunt Karina.

"That's what it seems," she said. "You must have the ability of strength. That must have been why you were able to repel the Grimmstone."

"Who are the other ones, though?" I asked her. "Could anybody else know about this?"

"I don't know," she replied, shaking her head. "A lot of people could have read about this legend, but there's no way to figure out who believes this."

I nodded. "Well, we need to hope that Blakk doesn't find out about this."

"_Nobody_ can find out about your abilities," she told me. "That includes your friends. It can put them in danger from anyone seeking information."

I didn't say anything to promise, so she just sighed and read through the rest of the book.

"Well, we can at least see if we can find a way to control your powers," she added. "I don't want you losing it during a duel and revealing our secret to everyone. Do you have any idea what could have triggered it?"

"No," I replied.

"Think hard," she told me. "What were you thinking when the power released itself?"

I thought about it. "Well, I was scared out of my mind that it might kill me," I replied. "I was mad at Blakk for starting this again with the ghouls."

"There we go," she said. "Fear and anger release it. We just need to get you angry again so that we can find out more about your power."

"What?" I demanded. "You want me to release that power again? You could've gotten hurt the last time I did it."

"Yes, but this time I will be prepared," she reminded me. "Besides, this will be the best way to help you control it in the future."

I was unhappy about it, but went along with it.

We went to the Arena and were fortunate enough for nobody to be there.

"What makes you angry?" Aunt Karina asked me when we were sure nobody was around.

"I don't know," I replied. "I usually don't get angry."

"Hm…" She stood there in though for a few minutes before her eyes lit up with an idea. "I've got an idea," she said. "You're enough like a Shane for this to work."

She directed me to close my eyes and I did so. "Do you ever remember somebody being cruel to their slugs?" she asked me.

"Yes," I replied. Just the thought of it made me angry.

"Think back to the last time you saw somebody be cruel to a slug," she told me.

I thought back to first day of classes, when Rob threw his Rammstone at the ground. I nodded and she continued, "Now, remember the anger you felt when you saw it?" I nodded again. "Good. Let that feeling intensify and flood through you. Feel the anger, get mad."

I did as she said and let the anger spread and grow in intensity until I was ready to punch something.

Right as I was about to actually declare the exercise useless, I felt something click in the back of my mind and felt the rush of power again.

I opened my eyes and Aunt Karina gasped. "You're eyes…they're completely blue," she told me. She recovered her composure and gave me more orders.

"Act like the person who tried to hurt the slug is right in front of you," she told me. I imagined Rob in front of me and nodded. "Now, attack the person."

"What?" I asked her.

"We need to see the power used in a controlled state," she explained. "Now, attack the imaginary person."

I rose my eyebrows but did as she said, throwing a punch at the imaginary Rob.

Instead of a punch, though, a large, blue fist of energy flew outwards.

"Whoa!" I shouted, calming down. The power left me and I staggered bit before recovering.

"Are you okay?" she asked me, running over to where I was standing.

"Yeah, fine," I told her.

"Do you want to keep going?" she asked.

"Yeah."

She checked me over for another minute before retreating to where she was standing.

"Now, can you remember where the energy came from?" she asked me.

I thought back to when the energy left me and searched my mind until I came upon a wall I couldn't get past. I fought against it for over five minutes before I sensed a crack appearing in it. This entire time Aunt Karina watched curiously, since this entire thing was happening in my mind.

I worked for five more minutes before I felt the familiar surge of power rush through my body. When I sensed it I yelled to Aunt Karina, "Fire a Rammstone!"

"Are you sure?" she asked, eyebrows rising.

"Yes!"

She hesitated before loading her Rammstone and firing it at me. The slug looked hesitant to hit me, but did it anyways, aiming for my midsection.

I held out my hands and caught the Rammstone.

When it was in velocimorph.

"That was amazing," she told me. "You can't tell _anybody_ about this, though," she added.

"Except for my friends, right?"

"No, not even your friends," she replied. "Nobody can know, or things could get worse." She grabbed my wrist and looked me in the eye. "Promise me that you won't tell anybody about this."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," I replied, pulling my arm from her wrist. I still had the extra strength so she didn't really have any hold over me.

Little did I known this promise would be so hard to keep.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19—Secrets

Thanks for the awesome reviews. I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. Don't be afraid to leave reviews!

The next day we didn't train with my powers in case anybody saw while as they came back to the University, so we just did some slinging practice. Aunt Karina beat me, or course, but I almost gained the upper hand by using my powers to Mega-Morph Yang.

"Hey, no powers!" she shouted as she fended off Yang with a Mega-Morphed Saphira. "That's not fair!"

I just chuckled before having to fend off her Sand Angler by using Stinger's webbing to take me out of danger.

After the duel was swift, so we went to the cafeteria for lunch.

"You know, you shouldn't use your powers like that," she reprimanded me as we got our lunch trays.

"Yeah, but at least I'm getting better at using it," I replied. "I can now focus the energy instead of just letting it loose."

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Emma asked as she approached from behind.

"Nothing," I said the same time that Aunt Karina said, "Slugslinging."

"Yeah, 'cause _that_'s not suspicious at _all_," Emma said sarcastically as she came alongside us. "Seriously, though. What are you guys talking about?"

"A practice duel we had earlier," Aunt Karina said. She was technically correct, because we were discussing what happened during the practice duel.

"Let me guess…Ms. Shane won," Emma guessed.

"Correct," I replied.

We dropped the conversation and entered the cafeteria building.

"Why were you back so early?" Emma asked me as we got our food.

"My parents had to go someplace and they didn't want me to be home alone when I could hang out with Aunt Karina," I told her.

"What happened to Yang?" Emma added, noticing Yang's new protoform.

"I borrowed an extra accelerator that was lying around the house and was able to Mega-Morph Yang before they discovered it and took the accelerator back," I said. I felt bad lying to my friends, but I was trying to keep the promise I made to Aunt Karina.

"That's so cool!" she replied. "He looks even cuter now!"

"You think every slug's cute, don't you?" Aunt Karina observed.

"Yes, yes I do," Emma declared. "And I'm right."

"Not all slugs are cute," I said.

"Oh, yeah? Name one," she demanded.

I was stuck. Nobody's supposed to know about ghouls yet. "Uh, what about a velocimorphed Frightgeist?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "They look really creepy in velocimorph."

We made our way to a table to eat, and halfway through Luke and Mark arrived at the table as well to complete the group.

"How was your weekend?" I asked Luke.

"It was good. I saw my parents and we went to Snowdance Cavern to watch a movie," he replied.

We discussed our weekends until we finished our lunches, when we took care of our dishes and left the building.

"Hey, Shane!" Rob yelled from behind me as we were riding our Mechas down the street.

"What do you want, Rob?" I asked him stopping my Mecha.

"I challenge you to a duel!" he said.

"What makes you think this one will go any different from last time?" I asked.

"Do you accept the challenge or not?" he demanded.

"I suggest you accept," Aunt Karina said. "It will lower people's opinion of you if you refuse."

"I wasn't planning on refusing," I told her. "I accept," I shouted back at Rob.

We rode our Mechas to the Arena and parked them outside before walking in.

"Let's get this over with," I said with a sigh. I wasn't in the mood to duel, but I wasn't going to let Rob think I'm a coward.

We walked to our proper positions on the field and waited for Aunt Karina to tell us to begin.

He started off my firing an Armashelt and a Hop Rock, but I deflected the Armashelt with Stinger and was easily able to dodge the Hop Rock.

"I thought you would've gotten better since the last time we dueled!" I taunted Rob. "I was wrong. If anything, it looks like you got worse."

"Why, you little…" he snarled. He launched a couple Grenuke slugs that I dodged as well before pulling a red slug tube that was all too familiar from Friday.

"Is that…a ghoul?" Mark asked as Rob launched a Grimmstone at me.

"Yes, it is," I yelled back at him as I shot Speedy to try and take it down. Unfortunately the ghoul was too strong and too close to try and take down with another slug. It was right about to punch me in the head when I sensed my powers leak of their own accord. I grabbed the Grimmstone's horn and threw it into the ground over my head.

"What did you do?" Rob demanded.

"I dodged that slug," I replied. "Where'd you get that ghoul?" I asked him, loading Tesla and launching it at Rob. He managed to take Rob down, so I used Stinger again to make sure he couldn't move.

"Where do you think I got it?" Rob sneered as Aunt Karina healed the ghoul with Jade, her Boon Doc. "Dr. Blakk has returned, and he has even more ghouls than before. He will bring SlugTerra to its knees."

"Security!" Aunt Karina called. Three security slingers ran into the Arena.

"Take this boy and this message to Tobias," she told them, holding out a folded sheet of paper to them.

They took the sheet and Rob and left for the president's office.

"Is there something you forgot about what happened during the weekend?" Luke asked me. "I saw what happened. You didn't dodge that ghoul. You _grabbed_ _and threw_ it. I've never seen anybody do that before."

"Aunt Karina, we might as well tell them," I said to Aunt Karina. "It'll only get worse if we keep it a secret."

She nodded. "Come, we'll explain in my office. It's too dangerous to discuss it out her in the open," she told them.

POV UNKNOWN

"Hehehe…" I chuckled as I reviewed the data I received from my hidden cameras in the Arena. "Jacob Shane, you're keeping a secret, and I know what it is," I said to myself as I replayed the footage of the young Shane catching a Rammstone mid-flight.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20—Explanations

Thanks everyone for the great reviews!

When we arrived at Aunt Karina's office Mark, Luke, and Emma cornered me.

"Spill. Now," Luke demanded.

"When I got home Eli and I got into a practice duel. He won, but before we could go back up to the Hideout the Hooligang arrived," I explained.

"I thought they disbanded," Mark commented.

"They came together again," I told him. "They had RoboSlugs, and a lot of them. One of them took me and flew about thirty feet in the air, before dropping me. Eli's Bubbaleone saved me and they took care of the Hooligang. Before we could do anything else, though, Dr. Blakk's son showed up. he had ghouls, and a lot of them. We managed to chase them away, but my parents sent me back to the University to keep me safe while the Shane Gang reassembled to deal with the new Dr. Blakk."

I got a drink of water before continuing, "On my way back here Blakk found me again and began launching Grimmstones at me. I managed to take down two, but the third got past Speedy."

I explained the rest of the story to them, right up until Emma arrived at the University.

"Nice story," Luke said, obviously not believing me.

"Believe him," Aunt Karina said in my defense. "I was there when his powers first emerged, and I helped train him."

"What proof do you have?" Emma asked.

I looked at Aunt Karina and she nodded, seeming to read my mind, like always.

I let out a bit of my power and lifted a table laden with books.

With one hand.

"Whoa," Mark said, pressing a button on his Holo-Glasses. "Your energy output is outstanding. You could power a city for over a week."

"Um, no thanks," I told him, setting the table down and restraining my power. "Aunt Karina made me promise to keep this a secret from you guys to keep all of this safe from prying eyes. I need you three to promise not to tell anybody else," I requested. "Please."

"Of course we promise," Mark replied. "That's what friends are for."

"This is so cool!" Emma said. "It's like you've got superpowers!"

"Pretty much, yeah," I told her.

"Remind me not to get you angry at me," Mark mumbled to himself as we made our way back to the rest of campus.

"Sure," I replied.

As we rode around campus we heard an announcement about a competition. In order to find out more, we had to go to the information desk in the main building.

"I heard John Martin won't be allowed to enter in this competition," Mark told us a few minutes after we walked into the building and had to make our way through the crowd that was already gathered.

When we got to the desk we were each handed pamphlets explaining the competition.

"Looks like it's a trick shot competition," I commented as I read through the pamphlet.

"You shouldn't enter," Aunt Karina told me.

"Why not?" I demanded. "This won't involve my powers."

"Yeah, but it won't be fair for the other students," she explained. "I've seen your trick shots. They rival your father's."

"Are you really that good?" Luke asked me.

I shrugged. "I'm not bad. I would mess with my parents using trick shots once I got Speedy and was allowed to use a blaster," I replied. "I once messed up, though, and instead of Speedy flying past my dad's head, Eli was given a concussion. After that I cut down on the trick shots to avoid hurting people."

"I think you should enter," Emma told me. "There are probably better trick shot slingers here than you're used to, so it'll be a nice challenge."

"What's the prize?" Luke asked, searching through the pamphlet.

"It's a Boon Doc," Aunt Karina replied, pointing to the front cover.

"Cool!" Emma said. "I hope I win."

"Don't forget this part," Mark told her, pointing to a small note at the bottom of the paper. "To enter, you must have a Speedstinger slug."

"Aw," she complained. "That stinks."

"You can borrow a Speedstinger from the University," Aunt Karina told them. "You just need to go to Enigmo Hall and…" she trailed off as we ran to Enigmo Hall.

"Hello, we would like to borrow Speedstinger slugs," Emma said when we arrived at a room we were directed to by a professor. There were various slugs scattered around the room and even more in a room separated by a glass wall.

"How many?" the woman at the desk asked.

"Three," Luke said.

"Student identification cards, please," she requested.

They pulled out their cards and presented them to the woman. She scanned them quickly and, when got permission, grabbed three slug tubes and placed Speedstinger slugs in them.

"Are these for the competition?" she asked us.

"Yeah, they are," Luke told her.

"Well, treat them well and good luck," she replied.

"Thanks," Emma said as we walked out.

"Do you guys know how to do trick shots with Speedstinger slugs?" I asked them as we emerged from Enigmo Hall.

"Um…no," they all said at once.

We went to the Arena and I taught them the basic about Speedstingers, which Mark helped me with. I showed them some examples of simple trick shots before showing them how to perform them.

I started with a simple trick shot. I loaded Speedy and spent a few seconds aiming before launching him. He ricocheted off the wall, a few rock piles, and ended right back with me.

"_That_ is simple?" Mark asked me. "I could never do that!"

"Just imagine the shot," I told him, adjusting his loaded blaster. "Play it out in your mind. Imagine where the slug will go, which direction it'll go for each ricochet, and where it'll go."

He took a deep breath and took careful aim before pulling the trigger.

His Speedstinger bounced off a rock pile, the ground, the wall, somebody's blaster, and eventually came back to Mark.

"That was so cool!" Emma said, loading her Speedstinger. She didn't take long enough, though, and her slug ended up bouncing randomly around the Arena, making everyone duck for cover before I caught it.

"You need to imagine the shot playing out," I reminded her, handing the slug back to her as I spoke. "Try again." She loaded the slug again and I continued. I gave her the same instructions as I gave to Mark. She took careful aim this time, but didn't take long enough so I bumped her blaster right as she fired, making the slug miss a person she would've hit. After a few ricochets, it returned to her.

"Thanks," she told me.

"You're welcome. You need to take longer when you aim. You're not playing it out in your head completely. You fire too soon, causing to shot to miss," I told her. As she kept practicing I helped Luke, but he was faring pretty well after watching me teach Mark and Emma, so I went back to helping Emma, who was becoming frustrated.

"It's not working!" she told me. "I imagine it in my head, but every time it misses."

"That's probably because your slug's getting tired," I told her. Her slug looked worn out.

"Oh, I'm sorry little guy," Emma told the slug. He nodded and hopped into a slug tube to rest.

"What's the hardest trick shot you know?" Luke asked me.

"Sorry, but I want to keep my ace in the hole a secret until the competition," I told them. "I had been working on it constantly before school began, and I'm still not sure if I can get it right. I can't get enough speed."

"Well, you can get the speed now," Mark told me. "Just power up Speedy."

"Thanks, Mark," I replied. "We should go get dinner."

That night, when Luke was asleep, I received a call on my Glasses.

"What is it?" I snapped. "I'm tired and not in the mood to chat."

"Oh, you will be when you see this," the voice said. It was distorted, as if by a computer. "You are about to receive a video message. Open it."

A second later I received the message and opened it.

It was a video of my training with Aunt Karina to better control my power.

"Where did you get this?" I demanded.

"I have my sources," the voice replied. "I know your secret, Jacob Shane."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Simple. Don't win the competition tomorrow," the voice told me. "If you get past the first round, I will release this video to your parents. If you get past the second round, I will send this to the teachers.

"What about when I get past the third round?" I asked the person.

"If you managed to get past the third round, I will send this video to every student on this campus," the voice said calmly.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Somebody much better than you. At everything," it said before the call ended.

I lifted my Glasses and snuck out to find the one person I knew I could trust to help me with this problem.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21—Help

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"What is it? Who's there?" Aunt Karina grumbled as I knocked on the front door of her home. I snuck out of the dorm room and made my way to her house. She's the only one I could trust with this.

"It's me, Aunt Karina," I told her.

"Jacob? What are you doing here so late?"

"I need to talk to you," I said. "Can I come in?"

"Might as well," she replied, opening the door.

"Nice pajamas," I commented when I saw her pajamas, which had pictures of a velocimorphed Infernus slug on them.

"If you say one word of this to Eli, you will be sorry," she threatened.

"Okay, okay," I assured her.

"Now, what is it you wanted?" she demanded.

I turned up the speakers on my Holo-Glasses and replayed the call.

"What does he have to back this up?" she asked.

I handed her the Glasses and played the video.

"Oh," she said simply. "Wait. Replay the end of the message."

I replayed the last dozen seconds for her.

"There is only one person I know of that acts that overconfident," she told me. "John Martin."

"Do we have any way of being sure it's him?" I asked her.

"No, we don't. Have you signed up for the competition?" she asked me.

"No, I haven't."

"Good. Don't. We can't afford to have this reaching anybody," she told me.

"What? I have to enter this competition!" I told her.

"No, you don't," she replied. "This needs to remain a secret."

"But if I don't do this, then the blackmailer can just use this against me again. It'll make him think I'm afraid of him," I explained "Can't you just trace the call or something? Find the source?"

"I can try, but not now," she replied. "If I can't find the source by the time registration ends, don't sign up for it."

"Fine," I muttered before grabbing my glasses and walking out.

The next day registration was held.

"Aren't you going to register yourself?" Luke asked me ten minutes before registration ended. I had been waiting for Aunt Karina to let me know if she found the source, but nothing so far.

"I'm not going to let this guy beat me," I told myself as I walked up to the registration desk.

"I'd like to register myself for the competition," I told one of the people at the desk. I told them my name and presented Speedy for them to register.

"Thank you for registering yourself. Your time for the qualifying round will be sent to your Holo-Glasses," the person told me.

"Thank you," I replied.

As I walked away I pulled down my Glasses and checked for my time. It would be in twenty minutes.

"When are you guys going for the first round?" I asked the others. For the competition we perform trick shots by ourselves and the judges give us scores. The highest scores move on to the next round.

"Thirty minutes," Mark said.

"Ten minutes," Luke replied.

"Forty minutes," Emma told us.

"Cool," I added. "Who else do you think signed up?"

"Well, I hope you didn't," a voice said from behind me.

"Hey there, Aunt Karina," I replied. "Does that mean you couldn't trace the call?"

She sighed. "You signed up for it, didn't you?" she asked me.

"Yes, yes I did," I said. "I'm not going to let this person bully me around."

"What are you two talking about?" Luke asked.

"Nothing," we replied at the same time.

"You need to pull out of the competition," Aunt Karina told me. "We can't afford the entire campus knowing about what you can do."

"No!" I snapped. "I don't back out of a challenge. To back out now would show me as a coward, and that would hurt the name 'Shane'."

"Back out of the competition," she told me. "Or else I will disqualify you."

"What will you say to disqualify me?" I asked. "You've got nothing against me."

"Oh, really?" she asked. "I still have that video. Either you back out, or I will use it to make sure the video doesn't reach anybody else."

"You would do that to me?" I asked her, taken aback. "You would ruin my trust in you?"

She looked me in the eye and I knew she was completely serious.

"Fine, then," I snapped at her. "Release the video. I'm not backing out of that competition." I walked away with me friends to the Arena to watch Luke's tryouts.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22—Round One

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"You may begin, Mr. Jones," the judges told Luke as he emerged on the Arena floor.

Luke nodded and loaded his Speedstinger. He aimed it at the far end of the stadium, adjusted the angle a bit, and pulled the trigger. The Speedstinger ricocheted off of the walls, rock piles, and ground several dozen times before returning to protoform in time to land in the blaster again.

"Thank you, Mr. Jones," they told him. "We will reveal your score when the round is over."

He nodded and walked up into the stands to sit with us.

"Why do you think they positioned tryouts so far apart?" Emma asked us.

"They need to time reset everything," Luke explained. "They need to fix any rock piles that are disturbed, fix and replace targets, and make sure everything is in perfect working condition."

"Oh."

A few minutes later they called my name for tryouts. I was surprised that they were still letting me audition even though Aunt Karina showed them the video.

"You may begin, Mr. Shane," they told me.

I nodded and loaded Speedy. "Which trick do you want to try?" I asked him.

He chirped. "The Shane Star? Are you sure?" I asked. "The conditions may not be right."

He nodded and chirped again. "Are you sure you can handle the extra speed?" I requested. He nodded so I loaded the blaster, aimed, and used some of my powers right as I launched him to give him a boost. It wasn't true Mega-Morph speed, but it was certainly enough.

He began ricocheting off of the walls, pillars, and targets in a seemingly random pattern until he finally found the right spot and stayed there. At ground level you wouldn't be able to make sense of it, but if you were about twenty feet higher than us, which the judges were, it would make complete sense.

Due to his high speed he just appeared as a blur of light, and that blur formed a star over and over again, finally returning to protoform when Speedy lost the required speed to stay in velocimorph.

"Thank you, Mr. Shane," they told me. "We will reveal your score at the end of the round."

I nodded and grabbed Speedy before jumping up into the stands.

"That was awesome!" Emma told me as the Arena was reset. "Why didn't you save that until the later rounds?"

"Speedy requested it," I told them.

"Why was your aunt threatening to disqualify you earlier?" Mark asked me. "Is there something going on that we don't know about."

"It's better if you don't know," I replied. "Trust me."

Mark didn't get a chance to ask more because his name was called to go next.

"Good luck, Mark!" I shouted after him as he walked out onto the field.

He nodded at us and waited for the judges to allow him to begin.

When they told him to begin he loaded his Speedstinger and took careful aim, adjusting the angle a few times before pulling the trigger.

The slug transformed and ricocheted off of a wall before flying right by his face, so close that you could barely see any space between his nose and the slug.

"How did you know that would work?" I asked Mark as he returned to his seat.

"I calculated the shot angle, speed, and winds in the Arena," he replied.

"All that from a few seconds?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yep."

"Okay, then," I said.

When Emma's turn came by she walked out onto the field and got her shot ready.

I could tell by the time her slug was launched that the shot was going to fail. She didn't take long enough to think it out, and didn't aim in the right direction, so instead of bouncing harmlessly off of a rock pillar the slug hit it right between two rocks, causing the pile to topple over. The result was interesting, though. Her slug ricocheted off the falling rocks and sent them in various directions.

"Apparently, tricks shots aren't my forte," Emma commented as she rejoined us.

"I didn't release the video," Aunt Karina told me, appearing to my side.

"Why? I thought you didn't want the public knowing about it," I snapped.

"I found another way to trace the video and destroy it," she explained. "There was nobody in the Arena while we were training, which meant that there were videos placed here. I managed to trace WiFi signals given off by a few hidden cameras. They were the ones that recorded the video we saw. In a few minutes I'm going to work on tracing the source of them and try to erase the video and any copies. Until then, I suggest you call your parents and explain to them what it is that you can do."

I sighed. "Sure. I'll call them during lunch," I told her. "They don't release the results until about an hour after lunch, which is when the last tryout ends."

She was right about to leave when I grabbed her arm. "Thank you for not releasing the video," I added before releasing her.

"You're welcome," she replied with a smile.

"Are you going to explain that yet?" Luke asked me.

"No. If we get this taken care of, I'll explain it to you," I told them.

"Now, would Mr. Leon Blakk please report to the field for tryouts," one of the judges read into the microphone.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" I asked Emma.

"Yes, yes she did," she replied. We watched as Leon Blakk walked out onto the field. He even had an unghouled Speedstinger for the occasion.

"Surprised, Shane?" Blakk said when he saw me staring.

That was an understatement.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23—Surprise!

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"I thought this was a students-only competition!" I declared.

"No, it says here that it's for anyone to sign up for," Mark told me, pointing to a small comment at the bottom of his pamphlet.

We watched as Blakk performed a flawless trick shot.

"He's going to try to win the Boon Doc so that he can ghoul it," I commented. "We have to stop him."

"So let's stop him, then," Luke told me.

We watched tryouts continue. Vinyl even tried to get into the competition. Her trick shot wasn't bad, either. Her Speedstinger ricocheted off of various rock piles in spot that would make you think they would topple, but they didn't even wiggle. Her slug flew by her face several times, but she didn't even flinch. She just watched with a slight smile.

"Thank you, Ms. Rose. We will reveal the results after the last tryout," the judges told her when she finished. She nodded and walked up into the rows of seats.

"Good job out there, Vinyl," I complimented her as she walked by.

She looked at me. "You too, Shane."

She walked up to her seat in a way to indicate she was nervous, but I didn't think twice about it. We were all nervous about whether we'd get in or not.

About three quarters into tryouts they dismissed us all for a lunch break.

"Make sure you call your parents and tell them," Aunt Karina reminded me as we made our way to the cafeteria.

"I will. How's it going tracing the video?" I asked her.

"It's not good. The computer's surrounded by endless firewalls. I might have them taken down by the end of the second round, but not the first one," she replied.

"It's okay," I assured her. "You'll get it."

"Thanks. Make sure you make that call before they release the results," she repeated before walking away to her office.

We got our lunches and I ate mine in a rush.

"What's with the rush?" Luke asked me.

"I need to call my parents about something," I told him as I took care of my dishes. "I'll catch up with you guys later."

I jogged over to our dorm room and made sure nobody was listening before I called Trixie.

"Hey, there," Trixie said when she answered the call. "What's up? We were actually on our way to the University to watch the Competition. Are you competing in it?"

"Yeah, I am, but I need to talk to you and Eli now," I told her.

"What's the problem, kiddo?" Eli asked me. "Is something wrong?"

"On the way back to the University from the Hideout, something happened," I replied.

"What happened?" he asked, turning completely serious.

"As I was about to leave the cavern Blakk found me," I told him. "I'm okay. Aunt Karina showed up and helped me out, but something else happened."

"Tell me exactly what happened," Trixie said.

I said exactly what happened during the encounter, including the part with my powers.

"Oh, I'm sure you just imagined it," Eli said.

"Oh, yeah? Then how do you explain Yang Mega-Morphing?" I demanded. "How do you explain me being able to catch a _velocimorphed_ Rammstone?"

There was silence for a minute at the other end. "We'll be at the University in ten minutes. When we get there, show us."

"Okay. Meet me in Aunt Karina's office," I replied. "Bye."

After I ended the call I gathered my slugs again and we left for the Admin Building.

"What do you need? I'm busy," Aunt Karina asked me as I walked in. She was sitting at a large computer and was typing at full speed.

"Eli and Trixie are coming here and they want me to show them my powers in person," I told her.

"Okay." She pressed a button on her chair and every window turned black so that the room was only lit by Lumino Crystals.

Just over ten minutes later the elevator doors opened again and Eli and Trixie ran out.

"Are you okay, Jake?" Trixie asked me.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine," I replied.

In the meantime, Eli confronted Aunt Karina.

"Why didn't you tell me about Blakk attacking Jacob?" Eli demanded.

"We didn't want you freaking out like you are," she replied.

"This wasn't your secret to keep, _Elinor_," he snapped.

Before we could all blink she had loaded Saphira and was aiming her blaster at Eli. "You want to call me that again?" she hissed. "Or would you rather keep your hair unburnt?"

"Guys, stop fighting!" I told them, standing between them. My powers began leaking, turning my eyes blue. "We wanted to keep this a secret until we could figure out what my powers are."

"What _are_ your powers?" Trixie asked as Aunt Karina holstered her blaster.

"Watch this," I told them. I let my powers flow and lifted a table in each hand. They were both heavily laden with books, but I barely felt any strain.

"Whoa! Okay, okay!" Eli said, taking a step back. "What happened with Yang, though? How was he able to Mega-Morph?"

"I used my powers to give Yang a big enough boost to Mega-Morph," I replied, holding out Yang for them to see.

"He looks cool in Mega-Morph protoform!" Burpy commented.

"Thanks!" Yang replied.

"Congrats on reaching Mega-Morph, little guy," Eli told Yang. He straightened up and looked at me. "How do you have your powers, though?"

"This story explains it all perfectly," Aunt Karina said, holding out the book I found the answers in.

"A myth?" he asked us.

"It all fits together. I have the gift of strength," I told them as Trixie and Eli read it.

"So…you're some kind of superhero?" Trixie asked me.

"Not quite," I replied. "I haven't quite completely figured out my powers yet."

"This is impressive," Eli commented. "Who are the other ones with the gifts, though?"

"No idea. We'll find out eventually, though," Aunt Karina said.

"Why did you tell us about this right now?" Eli asked.

We explained the issue with the blackmailer.

"It's probably Blakk so that he can get the Boon Doc," Eli said right away.

"Why do you always assume it's Blakk's fault?" Aunt Karina demanded. "As far as I've gotten tracing the video, it came from a student's computer. A _student's_. Somebody's trying to beat a Shane, that's it."

Before we could continue the conversation a voice came over the speaker system, telling all competitors to go to the Arena to receive the results of the tryouts.

"Wish me luck!" I shouted as I took off towards the Arena.

When I arrived at the Arena I sat with my friends and watched eight names appear on the screen. Among them were Blakk's, Vinyl's, Mark's, Luke's, and mine. Emma missed by a fraction of a point.

"Good try, Emma," we told her.

"Attention, those of you who have moved on to the next round," one of the judges said into a microphone. "The next round will be held tomorrow after dinner."

As we left the Arena Eli and Trixie walked up to us.

"Did you get the video?" I asked them.

They nodded.

The next day classes continued so things returned to normal, or at least as normal as possible. During lunch Mark, Luke, and I practiced our trick shots, refining the ones we would use for the next round.

In one of my blaster-tech classes we finished a project we had been working on since the third day of school. We each developed our own versions of blaster-mounted flashlights that allow us to duel in complete darkness.

"These things look cool," I commented when I saw all of them. There were many variations, from large spotlights, to small ones that can be used without a blaster.

That day after dinner we all rushed to the Arena for the second round.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24—Round Two

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"Welcome to the second round!" one of the judges told those of us that moved on. "The first slinger to do their trick is to be Leon Blakk."

As Blakk walked out onto the field we could hear faint booing emanate from Emma's direction.

"Let's hope he messes up," Luke muttered to me.

Unfortunately, he did his trick shot with near perfection.

"Beat that, Shane," Blakk growled at me as he returned to his seat.

"Last time somebody told me that, I did," I told him. Vinyl's name was called next, so we cheered her on as she walked out onto the field.

Unfortunately, her shot failed by a small margin, but it was probably enough to take her out of the running.

"The next slinger will be Jacob Shane," the judges announced once the field had been reset.

"Let's go, Speedy," I told my slug as we walked out onto the field. He nodded as I loaded him into my blaster. I took careful aim and made sure the points Speedy would ricochet off of were clear before pulling the trigger.

Speedy ricocheted around the field and off a few empty seats in the rows above our heads, finally ending up turning to protoform in time to land on my hat. He even added a bow of his own accord.

"Told ya," I told Blakk as I returned to my seat.

When the last slinger finished the judges conversed among themselves before presenting the names of the four slingers that would continue. Among them were Luke, Blakk, and I.

"Did the teachers receive the video?" I asked Aunt Karina when we got to her office afterwards.

"I didn't manage to break past the firewalls in time," she told me, "but the video never sent. In fact, it disappeared from the entire network, including the copies."

"Do you think the blackmailer plans on placing them in another network?" I asked her.

"I don't know, and I can't find out until the video reappears," she replied. "I'm sorry I couldn't remove it."

"It's okay," I assured her. "Can you at least find out whose computer this is?"

"No. It's a dummy account, without any names mentioned in it," she replied. "Whomever this is, this person is a computer genius. There's no way that this could be Martin. He knows practically nothing about computers."

I sighed. "Let's just, stop and wait for something to happen," I told her. "You should get some rest, too. How long have you been awake?"

"I'm fine," she replied. "Anyways, you need to get ready to leave a midnight tonight."

"Why?" I was confused.

"You have another meeting tonight with the people running the black market," she said. "Did you forget?"

"Yes, I did," I muttered. "It's at the statue of Will Shane, midnight tonight."

"Okay. I'll be watching," she told me.

That night I got up a bit before midnight again and snuck out, making sure my slugs were hidden but close at hand in case anything happened.

"Hello? Anybody here?" I whispered when I got to the statue.

"You here for the slugs?" a voice asked from behind me.

I spun around. "Yeah, that's me," I replied in a hushed tone.

The person handed me a slug tube, but this one was red.

"Is this a ghoul?" I asked the person, lifting the tube to eye level.

"Yes. This is known as an Attacknet," the person told me. It was a ghouled version of an Arachnet. "Be here tomorrow, same time, and we'll discuss more slugs."

The person was right about to walk away and disappear when Aunt Karina appeared in front of us.

"Who are you?" she demanded. He pulled back his hood and revealed…John Martin.

"Where are you getting these slugs?" she asked him.

"Blakk, of course," he snarled before firing a Phosphoro. The blinding light distracted us long enough for him to disappear.

"This is not good if Blakk is giving ghouls to students," I said.

"Yeah. Plus, we just lost our foothold in the market when he got away," she cursed. "Give me the slug. I'll make sure it's healed and kept safe."

I handed her the tube and she told me to return to my room before disappearing as well.

As I walked back to my room a shadow approached me.

"What do you want?" I asked the person, attaching my flashlight mod to my blaster.

"To return this," the person said, holding out a microchip. I recognized the voice.

It was the blackmailer.

"What is it?" I demanded. The person wouldn't answer so I shined my light in the person's face to reveal…

* * *

**A note from the author: Hey, guys! Like the cliffhanger? Well, I'll promise you this: the identity of the blackmailer will be revealed next chapter, which I plan to release one hour after this one, so stay tuned!**

**P.S. The identity will probably surprise you.**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25—Revealed

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The person wouldn't answer so I shined the light in his or her face to reveal…

**Vinyl Rose.**

"It was you?" I demanded. "_You_ were the one blackmailing me? I thought you were a good guy!"

"Shane, you are so trusting," she said with a light laugh. "I placed the cameras in the Arena so that I could study other duelists' styles. I was surprised when I discovered your gifts, and with the upcoming competition I figured I could use this to keep you out. I didn't realize you would still enter. When you got past the first round and I sent the video to your parents, you still didn't back down."

"Why didn't you send the video after the second round?" I asked her.

"After the second round, when I got knocked out. I realized that you were the best chance of beating Blakk. I may not mind ghoul slugs, but I don't want him getting his hands on a Boon Doc slug. Turning a slug like that into something so evil and powerful…it just doesn't make sense," she explained. She tossed me the chip and I caught it. "That contains the video and all of its copies. Your aunt is good with computers, but not good enough. Do me a favor, Shane, and beat Blakk so that he can't get the Boon Doc."

Before I could say anything else she vanished.

I looked around for her for a few minutes, but when I couldn't find her I went to the dorm room and destroyed the chip before climbing into bed and falling asleep.

The next day during lunch I explained the issue with the blackmailer to my friends, but didn't reveal her identity. I believed she could still change for the better.

"So the person just _gave_ you the videos?" Aunt Karina demanded when I told her about it.

"Yep. I destroyed them, too, so we won't have to worry about it," I replied.

"That's good. Now, you and Luke need to worry about beating Blakk," she told me.

"We are," I said.

That day during the third round Luke was knocked out along with another person, so it was just Blakk and I left.

"Good luck, Shane," Blakk growled when our names were announced. "You're going to need it."

I just frowned and walked over to my friends.

"You're going to need to practice non-stop in order to beat him," Luke told me.

"I know," I replied. I pulled out the list of rules for the competition and reviewed it several times checking for a rule that would go against what I plan. There was nothing.

"Dad, can I borrow Shiner for the final round?" I asked Eli, referring to his Phosphoro slug.

"Yeah, why?" he replied, holding out Shiner.

"I need him for my last trick. It's tricky, though," I told him.

"I'm sure you'll do great," Eli assured me.

"Thanks," I said. I said 'hi' to Shiner and placed him in a slug tube. I would've borrowed a Phosphoro from the school, but I practiced the move before with Shiner at home, so I knew I could trust him to do what I needed.

That night I woke up at around eleven at night and brought Yang, Speedy, and Shiner with me as I went to the Arena.

"I just need you to cover the seats in darkness," I told Yang. I wasn't sure where every camera was hidden, but it was the best place to start. I Mega-Morphed Yang and launched him into the seats, where he flew around the entire Arena, cloaking the seats in darkness.

"Let's try this, guys," I told Speedy and Shiner. I loaded Speedy and launched him at one of the walls. He ricocheted off the walls, pillars, and ground before finally getting the right angle.

"You know what to do, Shiner," I told Shiner. I tossed the slug into the air and Speedy caught him, going straight up.

Near the apex of his height Speedy threw Shiner as hard as he could. Shiner managed to reach velocimorph, but didn't finish the trick so that we wouldn't attract attention.

"Good job, guys!" I congratulated my slugs. "If we can get more speed we'll have the trick in the bag!"

The slugs cheered as I caught Speedy and Shiner.

"Hey, Speedy," I said. "Wanna see if you can Mega-Morph?"

He nodded and began chirping rapidly about always wanting to Mega-Morph.

"Let's try it, then," I told him. I loaded him into my blaster and I loaded him with energy before pulling the trigger.

He velocimorphed almost immediately, and a second later he let out a bright light before Mega-Morphing.

"Good job, Speedy!" I congratulated him as he ricocheted around in excitement.

When he returned to protoform I looked at his Mega-Morph protoform. His front looked the same, but there was a bright silver streak down his back and the gray shell that was on his back darkened a shade, making the silver stand out even more.

"Cool look, little guy," I told him. He smiled and chirped some more.

After I performed the trick a few more times I returned to my room so that we could get a bit of sleep for the final round.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26—Final Round

Thanks everybody for the great reviews! I'd love to hear your reviews!

* * *

The next day classes seemed to pass by in a blur until we finally got to the competition again.

"Congratulations on making it to the final round," the judges told Blakk and I when everyone was assembled. "By random selection, Leon Blakk will go first."

He smiled as I walked to my seat. I made sure that Speedy and Shiner were ready for our trick as Blakk fired his Speedstinger. It looked extremely tired out, probably from a full night of practicing, and was barely able to ricochet twice before returning to protoform.

"Jacob Shane, please report to the field," the judges called as Blakk stormed off the field.

I walked onto the field and, when they told me to begin, loaded Speedy. I checked every angle and every spot he would ricochet before firing Speedy. I didn't Mega-Morph him, though, in case the speed threw the trick off.

When he reached the angle I grabbed Shiner and threw him to Speedy. He caught Shiner and continued straight up, throwing Shiner at just the right spot.

"Now, Shiner!" I shouted up to the Phosphoro.

He reached velocimorph and let out an explosion of fireworks, causing the crowd to erupt in 'Ooh's and 'Aah's.

"What was that?" Blakk demanded. "He used more than one slug? He should be disqualified!"

"It doesn't say anywhere in the rules that we're limited to one slug," I told him. "That shot was perfectly legal."

"Mr. Shane is correct," the judges told Blakk. "In a unanimous decision, we have determined the winner to be…Jacob Shane!"

"Yeah!" I screamed in victory. Blakk looked ready to steal the Boon Doc as it was presented to me, but when he saw Eli and the rest of the Shane Gang he backed down with a snarl.

"I think I'll call you…Medic," I told the slug. "How does that sound?"

It nodded and chirped a bit so I placed Medic in a slug tube.

"Good job out there," Eli told me. "You're starting to build your own little arsenal."

"Yep. Plus, now I can deal with any ghouls that show up on campus," I replied.

"Good job beating Blakk," Vinyl said from behind me.

I turned around. "Thanks. You were pretty good yesterday, too."

She nodded and rode away on her hoverboard.

"Looks like you made yourself an enemy of Blakk's," Emma told me as we walked Blakk walk away.

"He made me an enemy when he attacked me and my family," I replied. "Besides, I think just having the last name 'Shane' put me on his bad side."

"Well, we've slowed him down today," Eli told me. "He'll probably return, though. I just hope he doesn't ghoul that Speedstinger he used."

"He won't," Aunt Karina said. "He left it here," she added, holding out an exhausted Speedstinger slug.

"You okay there, little guy?" Trixie asked it.

It didn't reply. It was just lying in Aunt Karina's hand panting for breath.

"He must have worked the poor thing endlessly," Aunt Karina told us. "He'll need to spend some time with the University's group of Fandangos before he can duel any more."

"I hope he gets better," Emma said as the slug was taken away.

"So do I," I replied.

"Whoa, what happened to Speedy?" Mark asked, noticing Speedy's new look.

"He Mega-Morphed last night," I explained, holding him out for them to look at. "I was working on the trick shot last night and we wanted to know if he could Mega-Morph."

"He looks even cuter than before!" Emma commented. Speedy blushed slightly and jumped back onto my shoulder.

"What does he look like in velocimorph?" Luke asked me.

"Watch out," I told them all. I loaded Speedy and loaded him with energy before launching him straight into Mega-Morph velocimorph.

"Watch your heads!" I shouted to the others as he approached. Before he could zoom by, though, I snatched him out of the air.

"That's impressive," Eli told me.

"Thanks. Looks like I'll never need an accelerator," I commented, putting my blaster away.

"Yep. Well, we need to get going," Trixie told me. "See you later."

"See you later, guys," I replied.

"How is it you're such a good slinger?" Mark asked me. "When you first arrived here you looked like just some average slinger, but now you're one of the best."

"My parents and Aunt Karina trained me," I explained. "Every time Aunt Karina visited I would get her to spend some time training me. She was the only person to not take it easy on my, and I loved the challenge. Where'd you guys learn how to sling?"

"My dad taught me," Luke told me.

"Parents," Emma said.

"Uncle," Mark added.

We left the Arena then and traveled around the town. I bought some more slug tubes and Luke bought himself a new part for his Mecha.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27—Clash of Titans

Thanks for the reviews! I love hearing from you guys!

* * *

Over the next few days things began calming down. School continued as normal, homework increased, and Mark even won a dueling competition. I didn't want to compete, and John Martin wasn't allowed to compete, so Mark managed to win it. The prize was an Xmitter slug, which he named Glitch. He isn't used much, but Mark used him once to stop two people from getting into a duel in the middle of class. Glitch shorted out all our blasters, but it stopped the fight.

"You're turning into a good duelist," I complimented Mark after he split up the fight.

"Thanks. You, too," he replied.

The next weekend the University was holding another dueling competition, and John Martin was allowed to sign up for it. I'm not sure if he works for Blakk or not because of him giving me a ghoul, but in case he did I didn't want him getting his hands on the prize, a Frightgeist.

"Aw, I always wanted a Frightgeist," Luke mumbled when he saw Martin and I sign up.

"There's still a chance you could win," I told him. "You just need to believe in yourself."

He smiled. "Thanks, Jake."

The first round was Saturday morning, not long after breakfast was over. The first round was Luke versus Rob.

"Ready to lose, Jones?" Rob asked confidently as they walked out onto the field.

"When was the last time you even _won_ a duel, James?" Luke replied.

Rob just snarled and waited for the starting shot.

When it happened Rob fired a Hop Rock, but Luke just sent it back at him using Typhoon. Luke then launched Subzero, who froze Rob's feet to the ground. Before Rob could break out, Luke shot Dune, who created a hole beneath Rob's feet.

"And the winner is Lucas Jones!" the announcer said into his microphone.

"Good dueling out there," I congratulated Luke as I went out for my duel against Vinyl.

"Don't forget about Vinyl's illusions," Luke warned me. I forgot that he was the person to face her in the last dueling competition.

"I won't," I promised him.

When the signal was given for us to begin Vinyl started off as she always does, firing her Thugglet, Angel. Copies of Vinyl and her slugs soon surrounded me.

"Do your thing, Blaster," I told Blaster as I loaded him. I blasted him into the air around me and he launched his little grenades in a circle around me, passing through every copy of Vinyl. A couple stuck to the real Vinyl, though, and she removed them and took off.

I picked up a grenade and threw it at her as hard as I could. Blaster detonated them right before it would have caused her harm. It was enough to blast her off her feet, though. She soon jumped back to her feet and launched a Frostcrawler at me. I retaliated with Scorch then launched Yang to surround her in a cloud of darkness.

"And the winner is Jacob Shane!" the announcer shouted.

"Good try," I told Vinyl as I helped her out of the cloud.

"Yeah, sure," she mumbled, walking up into the seats to sit with her friends.

I walked back to the area the contestants have to sit in and we watched the remaining duels. Emma and Mark won their duels as well as Martin, so the five of us were part of the thirty-two remaining duelists.

"The first match of the second round will be John Martin versus Michael Johnson," the announcer said when we returned from a lunch break.

As the two duelists walked out onto the field we began conversing amongst ourselves.

"Who do you think is going to win?" Mark asked us. "Jake or Martin?"

"You can't be sure that I'll make it to the final round," I told them. "Somebody could beat me."

"Yeah, but I doubt you will," Luke said. "You're probably one of the best slingers on campus."

"I'm not that good," I replied humbly.

"Dude. You've fought ghouls. You have _Mega-Morphed_ slugs," Emma said. "I doubt you could lose."

"You never know," I told them.

They just rolled their eyes and watched the rounds progress. Luke knocked Mark out of the competition and I took out Emma, but Luke and I managed to make it to the finals, when Martin knocked out Luke. I took down the other person, so it ended up Martin versus me, just as Mark predicted.

"We've got the matchup of titans here, people!" the announcer said to get people riled up. "The undefeated champion of slinging at the University, John Martin, versus the up-and-comer Jacob Shane!"

People roared in excitement as we walked out onto the field.

"Good luck, Martin," I told him to be a good sport.

"Who needs luck when you've got power?" he sneered back. I looked at his bandolier and noticed a few ghouled slugs.

"Ready for your first duel, Medic?" I asked my Boon Doc. He nodded and once the signal was given I loaded Medic and launched him, giving him a bit of extra power so that when he reached Martin he healed all the ghouls in one shot.

"Why, you little…" Martin began. He loaded a Tormato slug and shot it at me. I ran as fast as I could until the twister dissipated.

When it did I loaded Tesla and launched him at Martin. He dove out of the way and launched a Tazerling followed by Frostcrawler and a Grenuke.

I managed to evade the Tazerling and shot down the Frostcrawler with Scorch, but the Grenuke detonated right at my feet, sending me ten feet into the air.

"Whoa!" I yelled as I fell. I launched Stinger and he managed to create a net for me to land in.

"Surprised by my skill?" Martin asked me, shooting down the web with a Thresher. "I don't need ghouls to beat you, but they sure help," he added before pulling a Grimmstone out from behind his back and launching it at me.

I dove out of the way and Mega-Morphed Speedy so that he could take down a chain of ghouls. One of them got past Speedy and punched me in the stomach before I could do anything.

"Uh…" I groaned in pain. Grimmstones pack a _way_ bigger punch than Rammstones.

"Jacob!" I heard Emma scream from the stands.

I staggered to my feet and was about to load Yang when Martin fired a Hop Jack at close range. I was still dazed by the first hit so it detonated at my feet, launching me back several more yards.

"Funny, I thought the Shanes were supposed to be good," Martin growled menacingly as he loaded a Greneater and aimed it at me.

He was about five feet away when he pulled the trigger, and I watched the Greneater race at me in velocimorph, growling evilly.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28—Aaah!

Sorry about the chapter title, but I couldn't think of anything else. As always, thanks for the reviews!

* * *

"I don't think so!" I heard a voice shout as a familiar Infernus slug knocked down the Greneater and surrounded Martin in a wall of flames.

"Jacob! Are you okay?" I heard Emma yell as they ran to me.

"I feel like somebody stuffed me in the washing machine for a few minutes, but other than that, I'm fine," I told her.

"John Martin, you are hereby disqualified from this tournament for use of ghouled slugs and attempting to kill your opponent," I heard Aunt Karina tell Martin. "Your actions will be brought before the disciplinary board, and if they deem it necessary, you will be punished further."

"Thanks for the assist, Aunt Karina," I told her as Saphira returned to her shoulder. "I'm not sure what I would've done if you hadn't been there. I was way too dazed to use my powers."

"You're welcome," she replied. Luke and Emma helped me to my feet as the announcer walked up to me to hand me the Frightgeist.

"I guess this belongs to you for winning the tournament," the announcer told me, handing me the slug.

"Thanks," I replied. He returned to the announcing stand to explain what happened to the crowd. When they heard about it they began booing at Martin as he walked out of the Arena, accompanied by two security slingers.

"Congrats on winning," Luke told me as we walked off the field.

"Here," I told him, tossing the Frightgeist to him.

"What? But I lost," he replied.

"Yeah, but you said you really wanted a Frightgeist slug, so there he is," I said. "I have no need for a Frightgeist."

"Thank you," he told me, picking up the slug. "I think I'll call you…Casper. How does that sound?"

The slug nodded.

"Well, then, welcome to the team, Casper," Luke told it, placing Casper in a slug tube.

"I can't believe Martin would openly use ghouls like that," Mark said.

"I'd believe it. He would've had more but I healed them with this little dude," I told them, holding out Medic. Medic chirped.

"Oh, sorry. This little _girl_," I corrected myself. Medic nodded and jumped into her tube.

"Do you need to go to the infirmary?" Aunt Karina asked me. "Or do you think Jade would be able to fix you up?"

"I think Jade can do the job perfectly," I told her. She took a few steps back and fired Jade at me. The Boon Doc was able to heal most of my injuries, and the rest would heal well enough given time.

"Thanks, Jade," I said to the slug as I handed it back to Aunt Karina.

"You should be better now, but you should take it easy the next few days," Jade told me.

"I will," I replied.

After that we hung out in mine and Luke's dorm room for a while.

"What do you think's going to happen to Martin?" Mark asked us.

"I hope he's at least suspended," Emma said. "What he did today…almost killing Jake and everything with the ghouls…it shouldn't go unpunished."

"Yeah. We can't make the decisions, though," I added. "It's all up to the disciplinary board to make the decisions. We just have to hope."

"Good point," Mark agreed. "Whatever the case, though, Jake's made another enemy, and this one's powerful as well."

"He's just good 'cause he's got ghouls," I commented. "If he didn't have the ghouls, I could've taken him."

"Yeah, sure you could have," Luke added sarcastically.

"Hey. In case you guys didn't notice, I was doing better against him than anybody else. If he hadn't pulled out those extra ghouls things would've gone a lot differently," I told them in my defense.

They just chuckled and dropped the subject.

We were talking for about thirty more minutes before there was a knock at the door.

"Anybody here?" a person asked from the other side. It was Tim, the Resident Advisor. He helps out with any problems the guys have. Maria's the female RA.

"Come on in, Tim," Luke yelled back. The door opened and Tim, a Cave Troll, walked in. He isn't quite as muscular as most Cave Trolls, but is still bigger than any human on campus.

"Hey, Jake, congrats on winning the tournament," he told me. "Are you feeling alright? I heard about what Martin did. That dude had better pay for what he did," he added, cracking his knuckles.

"I'm fine, Tim," I replied. Tim's a kind person, but you don't want to get him mad.

"That's good," he said with a smile. "Listen, Shane Hall's hosting a slug hunt for the people who live here. Are either of you interested?" he asked Luke and I. "You can bring a guest if you want," he added, looking at Mark and Emma.

"Sure," Luke replied. "What about you, Jake?"

"I'm in," I told them, jumping off the bed.

"We'll come, too," Emma and Mark said, standing with us.

"Come on, then," Tim told us, walking out.

We followed him out, closing the door behind him, and walked to the main room, where almost everyone living in Shane Hall was gathered.

"Will you four want anything to help catch your slugs?" Maria asked us. "Slug tape? Slug nets?"

"We'll be fine without them," Luke told her. "Thanks for the offer, though."

"Anytime," she replied with a smile.

"Okay, everyone from the Western Wing is going with me," Tim told the group. That included us, so we followed him outside and mounted our Mechas.

"We're going to the nearest cavern to the west," Tim told all of us. "The other group will travel to the east so that we won't cross paths."

We followed him out of the cavern and to the next cavern over, which was all jungle.

"Have all of you gone on slug hunts before?" Tim asked us. We all nodded so he smiled and sent us off.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29—Slug Hunt

Thanks for the reviews! I may not be able to post as often as i used to for a while. Mom grounded me from laptop, so I have to do this in secret.

* * *

"When did you go on a slug hunt last?" Luke asked me.

"About a year ago," I replied. "My parents wanted my to know what it's like to go on a slug hunt. Eli taught me that if I asked politely enough, I could get a slug to join my team without using any of the devices most people use."

"Neat," Emma said. "Now, be quiet. I heard something."

We silenced and dismounted our Mechas to investigate the noise.

It ended up being a group of various slug species, but they were surrounded by several slug hounds.

"That's not good," I commented. Mark fired Shiner into the sky to create a distraction.

As the slug hounds looked up at the light I fired Tesla at one while Luke fired Subzero at another and Emma fired Volt at a third.

Tesla and Volt managed to zap their targets with enough power to send them on the run while Subzero froze a third's hind leg. It took off running as well, leaving us to face two more angry slug hounds.

"Keep the slugs safe!" Mark told us as he fired Needles between the two hounds. He shot out a bunch of needles, causing the final hounds to take off yelping.

"Hey, there," Emma said cautiously as we approached the slugs. "Are you guys okay?"

They nodded and began chirping.

"They're thanking us for helping them," I translated for Emma. "They said that men in black suits sent the hounds to corner the slugs while they went back to retrieve devices to capture them."

"Would any of you like to join our teams?" Emma asked them. "We'll keep you safe the best we can."

Four slugs hopped away from the group. The Gazzer joined Emma, the Thresher joined my team, the Vinedrill joined Luke, and the Slicksilver went with Mark.

"These guys are absolutely adorable!" Emma announced.

"Yeah, they're pretty cute," I agreed. "Now, we need to make sure these slugs stay safe. Those guys sounded like Blakk's men."

"That's because we are," two voices behind us said. "Now, turn around slowly."

We turned as they said and saw that they were each pointing blasters at us, loaded with Hop Jacks.

"You sure you want to do this?" I asked them, my eyes beginning to turn blue. "There's two of you and four of us. You launch those slugs, and you'll most likely miss."

"Not if we both aim at you," one of them said as they pointed their blasters at us. "You're Shane's kid, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am," I replied proudly.

"Good. Blakk wants you alive. He didn't say anything about the rest of your friends, though," the other one sneered. They changed their targets at the last second and fired the slugs at me friends.

"No!" I screamed. I ran at the closest one and hit the first Hop Jack out of the air, but I couldn't get to the other one. It was too close to Mark.

Strangely, though, the spot he was standing in was empty.

"Are you okay, Mark?" Emma asked Mark. Her eyes were glowing an eerie yellow.

He nodded and she set him down, drawing her blaster.

"You guys are horrible people," she growled as she launched Bruiser. Instead of being regular velocimorph, though, Bruiser Mega-Morphed without an accelerator.

Or at least, without a mechanical one.

"Whoa, Bruiser!" Emma shouted as Bruiser exploded between the two goons. The detonation was much bigger than before, somehow affecting their blasters so that they wouldn't function.

"Forget it. Let's get out of here!" one of them shouted. They took off and we watched them run away.

"That's right! You'd better run!" Emma yelled as her eyes slowly faded back to normal.

"What just happened to Emma?" Luke asked us. "She was standing next to me one second, and in the other she moved Mark to the other end of the clearing."

"Looks like she's got a gift, like me," I said. "She must have the gift of speed."

"Seriously?" Emma asked me. "That's so cool!" She closed her eyes in concentration before opening them. They turned yellow again and she disappeared as she took off around the cavern before returning to her spot.

"Whoa, there," I told her. "You can't go showing off your powers like that. We have to keep this a secret between us. Nobody else can know," I said to the rest of them.

"Agreed," Mark, Luke, and Emma said. I looked at them all and nodded.

"Let's make sure these slugs are kept safe," I told the others. I had the wild slugs climb on my arms as I moved them to my Mecha along with the others.

"Where should we take them?" Emma asked me.

"Let's start off by putting them someplace else in this cavern. If we have to, we can move them to Bullseye Cavern to keep them safe," I told her.

We traveled around the cavern and added a few more slugs to our arsenals before finally coming upon a spot the slugs would be safe at.

"Here it is, guys," I told the slugs on my Mecha. "Stay safe!" I added as they hopped away.

They turned and waved before leaving.

"They were nice slugs," Mark commented. "At least we added some more slugs to our own teams," he added, referring to the slugs we got on the way there. He got a Hop Rock, Luke acquired a Bubbaleone, Emma found a Flaringo, and I got a Frostcrawler. I always wanted a Frostcrawler.

We explored the cavern further, but didn't encounter any more slugs that wanted to join us, so we returned to the spot the entire groups was supposed to meet at and waited for the rest of the people to arrive.

When they finally did we returned to the University and got ourselves dinner.

"Well, today has certainly been interesting," I commented as we sat down.

"That's the understatement of the year," Emma added.

When we finished we left the cafeteria and were making our way to the Arena to practice some more when I heard two familiar Mechas approach.

"Jacob!" Trixie yelled when she Eli got close enough. "Karina told us what happened. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told them. "You didn't have to come all the way here to check up on me. Jade fixed me up pretty well."

"Yeah, but we also wanted to give this to you," Eli told me, tossing me a backpack.

"Thanks. I always wanted a backpack," I said awkwardly as I caught the bag.

"Look in the top compartment," Eli added, smiling.

I lifted the top flap and gasped in excitement. The upper compartment had little slug beds, a mini couch and everything Eli's bag has.

"It came in today," Eli told me. "The bottom compartment should have plenty of space for your books and everything else you need."

"Thank you!" I said, hugging them while they were still on their Mechas. I emptied my original backpack and placed its contents in the bottom of my new bag.

"Welcome to you little home-on-the-go," I told me slug, gesturing for them to jump in through a small hole in the top of the bag. They leaped in and I opened the top to watch them jump around in joy. They soon raced to be the first in their choice of bed. Stinger automatically went for the highest one, using his webbing to pull himself up there.

"They seem to be enjoying it," Mark commented.

"Yeah, they do," I agreed as I pulled the bag onto my back.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Eli asked me.

"Yeah. Aunt Karina fixed me up pretty well," I assured him.

"Martin had better be punished," Eli added. "Using ghouls is bad enough, but to try to seriously harm your opponent…"

"I'm sure he'll be punished," I told them.

They nodded and left for home again.

"That was nice of them to bring you a new backpack," Emma said as we continued to the Arena.

"Yeah."

When we arrived at the Arena nobody was there so I used Yang to black out all the cameras and the entrance.

"What're you doing?" Emma demanded.

"You need to learn how to better control your powers, and this is the best way to ensure nobody watches," I explained to her. "Luke and Mark, you might want to stand back."

"Sure," Mark said, paying close attention.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30—Emma's Training

Thanks everybody for the great reviews! You rock!

* * *

I taught Emma how to access her powers with ease and how to control them better. She learned much faster than me, so soon she was zooming around the stadium. The wind she was creating caused the smoke to disappear, though, so we had to stop practicing and began working on our slinging.

"Can you help me with my trick shots?" Emma asked me as Luke and Mark began a practice duel.

"Sure," I replied. "Here, you can borrow Speedy," I added, handing her Speedy. He chirped a 'hello' at her and jumped into a slug tube, ready to go.

"Now, make sure you focus on the shot," I told her.

"Yes, I know, but I can't!" she exclaimed. "Every time I try, something distracts me. I can never focus!"

"I've got another idea," I replied. I pulled a new blaster mod I built and attached it to her blaster. "This will basically plan out the shot for you," I explained as I turned it on. "It will factor in where your blaster's aimed, wind conditions, your slug's energy, and terrain to give you a 99% accurate estimate."

"It's seriously that accurate?" she asked me.

"Well, I actually don't know," I admitted. "I've never needed it, so it's only been used in testing."

"Oh. Well, that's assuring," she muttered. She aimed the blaster and the screen lit up, showing her the estimated outcome. She adjusted it and launched Speedy.

He ricocheted among the pillars, narrowly missing a few, and bounced off Luke's blaster, causing his shot to miss Mark by several feet. Speedy flew right back at us and returned to protoform in time to land on my head, surprising Yang, who was sleeping. To add the finishing touch he did a grand bow.

"Good job, Emma and Speedy," I told them.

"Hey! You made me lose the duel!" Luke yelled as he tried to outrun Chomper.

"Yeah, but it made the trick work," Emma replied, laughing as Chomper nipped at his heels to tease him.

"That wasn't funny," he told us when Chomper returned to protoform.

"Actually, it was hilarious," Rob said as he and his friends walked in.

"What do you want, Rob?" I demanded.

"I just wanna train with somebody," he replied innocently. "Any takers?"

"I'll do it," I said, eager to get him out.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rob asked me confidently.

"Dude, when was the last time you _ever_ beat me? That's right, never," I snapped back. "When will you get that you can't depend on only your slugs?"

"Shane, that's how you win a duel," he replied. He loaded a Rammstone and launched it at me, but I just launched it back with Stinger. I launched Tesla, Scorch, and Freezer at him in that order. Tesla took down a Hop Rock, Scorch melted a Frostcrawler's attack, and Freezer froze one of Rob's legs. He melted the ice with a Flaringo and launched three Hop Rocks at me in quick succession.

I dove out of the way and launched Speedy, who caused Rob's blaster to jam so that I could launch Yang, trapping Rob in darkness.

"Do you think a bit of darkness can stop me?" he demanded as he emerged. He dug into his bag and pulled out a small red slug tube.

"What is it with people and ghouled slugs?" I demanded as I loaded Medic and loaded her with enough power to heal the Grimmstone he launched and any other ghouls he had.

"Power," Rob said with a sneer. He fired a Phosphoro in front of me, and during the flash he ran away.

"That guy needs to realize he's not as good as he thinks," Luke commented. "You could count the amount of victories he's had at the University on one hand."

"True," I agreed, gathering my slugs again. I grabbed the unghouled Rammstone and we took him to Enigmo Hall to join the University's slugs.

"Where'd you find this little guy?" the person at the desk asked me when I handed him the slug. "He looks fine."

"He used to be a ghoul, but my healer returned him to normal," I explained.

He nodded and placed the slug amongst a group of other slugs. "We'll make sure he finds a better home," he told me. "Thank you for bringing him. May I see your healer?"

"Um, sure," I replied. Medic jumped out of my backpack and I held her out for him to inspect.

"This is a strong slug," he told me, scanning Medic with a device. "She's well suited for dealing with ghouls."

Medic flexed her arms to pretend she had large muscles. I just laughed and returned her to my bag.

We left the building and went to Red Hook Hall, where the faculty was hosting a movie night. They advertised it as more of a horror movie, but we went anyways despite Emma's dislike for horror.

When the movie began we settled into our seats and watched the opening scenes. About fifteen minutes in I felt something cling to my arm. I looked over and saw Emma hiding her face in my arm.

"Are you okay?" I whispered to her.

"What? Yeah, fine," she replied, straightening in her seat. By the next scream, though, she was clinging to my arm.

I just went along with it and watched the movie, suppressing a small smile. Another thirty minutes later I caught Luke smiling at us.

"What?" I hissed at him.

He raised his eyebrows and looked from me to Emma and back.

"Oh, shut up. It's not like that," I told him. He just rolled his eyes and looked back at the screen.

"You must really not like horror movies," Luke told Emma as we walked out at the end of the movie.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded.

"I don't think you ever let go of Jake arm for most of that movie," Mark added.

Emma punched Luke's arm as I lightly hit Mark on the arm. "It's not like that," we said at the same time.

"Yeah, sure it isn't," Luke replied with a light laugh.

We just rolled our eyes and returned to our own dorm rooms.

"Good night," I told Luke and my slugs as I climbed into my bed.

"G'night," Luke mumbled back before his breathing was replaced by a light snoring.

On Monday we learned of John Martin's punishment.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31—Punishment

Thanks for the reviews! I would also like to thank again the people who have lent me their OCs. Sorry about the chapter being really short, but there wasn't a ton to write about for this chapter. Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

During Aunt Karina's Research class she announced the punishment to us.

"Due to his use of ghouled slugs and attempting to serious harm his opponent, John Martin has been expelled from SlugTerra University and will no longer be attending classes here," Aunt Karina announced. The room erupted in chatter as we discussed it.

"All right, all right, calm down," she told us. "Let's not let the events of the past weekend interrupt our class."

We silenced immediately and paid attention as she discussed the cavern we would be exploring at the end of the year.

A few minutes before class ended Aunt Karina threw in a little surprise. "In a few weeks we will be going on a field trip to a lesser-known cavern," she told us. "We will work on our teamwork skills. I will need you to go home over the weekend and have your parents sign these permission slips," she added, passing out permission slips.

"I can't wait!" Emma said as we walked out.

"Are you guys going on a field trip, too?" Luke and Mark asked us as we made our way to the cafeteria. They had similar slips in their hands.

"Yeah."

"The Mecha Research class is supposed to go so that we can set up Mecha-mounted sensors that record the terrain, climate, and just about everything else," Luke explained.

"The Slugology Research class will be going to record and study any slug species we encounter along the way," Mark added. "Looks like we'll be sticking together."

"Looks like it," I agreed.

A week later Fandango Hall went on a slug hunt and Emma and Mark invited us to go along, so we all added two more slugs to our teams.

The following weeks flew by without any incidents, so I'm just going to skip right to the field trip.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32—Field Trip!

* * *

Thanks for the awesome reviews! Keep em coming!

* * *

A few days before the trip Eli visited campus, so I got him to sign the permission slip.

"Good luck! Have fun!" Eli told me as he rode away.

"I will!" I shouted after him.

The day of the trip everyone that was going was excited. We were leaving after breakfast, so I made sure I had everything I would need. The trip would last into tomorrow, so I made sure to pack an extra set of clothes and a blanket to lie on.

"Are you guys ready to go?" I asked my slugs. They nodded and either went into my backpack or into my slug tubes. Speedy and Yang went to their usual spots on my shoulder and head.

I made sure I had a small bag of slug food packed as well before leaving the room with Luke.

"Is everyone here?" Aunt Karina asked us when our class was gathered. When she finished attendance we mounted our Mechas and formed a loose circle around the other classes. It was unlikely that anybody would attack us, as this was an easy journey, but we needed to practice for the trip at the end of the year.

"Everything clear on the northern tip?" Aunt Karina asked over the communication system we were all given. She was at the front of the group, which is the western tip.

"Everything's clear over here," came the response.

"South? How are things over there?" Aunt Karina asked. I didn't get why she was being so cautious. We could all see each other.

"Same. No threats in sight, just a couple Fandangos," the person replied.

As we continued there were no threats, so we began to relax more and more.

That's where things went wrong.

We were casually passing through a cavern when, from all sides, blaster fire rang out.

"Take cover!" Kord, the head of the Mecha Research class, shouted as he returned fire.

The students ran for cover as the students in Aunt Karina's class began returning fire. We couldn't see the people, but we could guess their general location from where the slugs were coming. There were even a few ghouls mixed in, so Kord and Aunt Karina began using Mega-Morphs.

"Let's hope this thing works," I muttered as I pulled out a double-barrel modification I built in my spare time. I wouldn't need a Vitalis crystal to power it, either, because I could just use my powers.

"Time to shine, guys," I told Thorn, my Dirt Urchin, and Tesla. I equipped the mod and loaded the two slugs. I took careful aim, knowing that the resulting fusion shot could be very dangerous, and shot them. They were able to use the fusion shot and launched electrified needles at the attackers. Soon people began falling from trees or just running away.

"How did you get that blaster mod?" Kord demanded when he saw me remove the double barrel. Using it was a bit draining.

"I built it," I replied. "Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah," he said as he blasted another person out of a tree with his Armashelt.

"Why are they here?" one of the students asked the professors.

"I don't know, but we need to make sure everyone's safe," Aunt Karina replied.

"Everyone duck!" Luke yelled as he loaded his Slyren, Singer.

He launched Singer into the air and once he reached velocity Singer used his Sleepytime attack on all the enemy slingers. They began dropping out of the trees, fast asleep. Singer managed to take them all out before returning to protoform.

"Good job out there, Singer," Luke told his slug when he returned.

"Let's get out of here before they wake up," Kord suggested.

"Do we continue or go back?" one of the other professors asked.

"We continue," Aunt Karina said. "This is what we're training for. We need to be able to protect ourselves.

As Aunt Karina did attendance for our class I put the double barrel mod away and climbed back onto Stryder before we continued.

"Stay alert," Aunt Karina told us. "We don't know if there are more or not."

We kept going and reached the end of the cavern twenty minutes. We could have cut the time in half by using our original speed, but we slowed down to look out for any new threats. Instead, all we came upon was a stray slug hound that soon ran away.

"We just have to get through this cavern and we'll be at the one we need," Kord announced. "Let's stop here and get lunch, though."

We moved to a large clearing and parked our Mechas.

"Okay, you guys can move around now," I told me slugs when we were stopped. They emerged from my bag and their slug tubes and began hopping around. I set out a dish of slug food for them and pulled a sandwich and a bottle of water from my bag as I settled down on my Mecha's seat.

"Is everybody ready to go?" Aunt Karina asked her class. When we all nodded the entire group continued. We retook our positions and looked out for any dangers as we continued on our journey. I constantly looked around for any threats, but there were none and we finished our journey to the cavern without a problem.

The cavern wasn't very big, and accessed via a narrow bridge, so we had to cross one-by-one. That explained why so little's known about it, at least.

"This place is _cool_," Mark commented when we were all assembled inside the cavern. There was a spring at the far end feeding a stream that leads into a large pond. There was a small forest gathered around the pool, and the rest of the cavern looked like a meadow with trees scattered around it. There was even an area clear of grass that we could park our Mechas on. Countless Lumino Crystals were embedded in the ceiling, providing plenty of light for us to see.

"Park your Mechas over there," Aunt Karina shouted for everyone to hear, pointing to the blank patch of ground.

We crowded all fifty of our Mechas into the area and walked out into the meadow.

"This place looks amazing," Emma said as we walked through the tall grass.

"Everyone in my class, come over here," the Slugology professor said. Mark and the rest of his class gathered over near the professor as Kord had his class gather around him.

"I've got the guard schedule already set up," Aunt Karina told us when she had her class gathered. She held out a data pad and enlarged a set of names. "These people are to take the first shift. Everyone else is to help out the other classes or help out with the shifts. I don't want to see anybody slacking off."

We nodded and set off for our various jobs. I was guarding the entrance with a Molenoid a few years older than me.

"How long did she say our shift lasts?" he asked me as we stood to either side of the entrance.

"She didn't," I replied, drinking some of my water. I kept my hand near my blaster as I used the camera on my Glasses to check out the surrounding area. There were no threats, but the pit that the bridge looms over looks a bit threatening. I turned on the night vision mode for the camera and looked down into the pit.

Fifty Negashade slugs looked up at me.

"I didn't know there were that many Negashade slugs," I commented.

"What's going on?" the Molenoid asked me.

"There's a huge colony of Negashades down in that pit," I told him. "They must be the ones keeping it so dark down there."

"The Slugology group would love to see this," he replied. "Want me to contact Ms. Shane and tell her?"

"I'll do it," I said. "Hey, Ms. Shane," I said into my communicator.

"Go ahead, Jake. I'm listening," she replied.

"I found something interesting at the entrance. Can you come out here and check it out?"

"Sure. I'll be there soon."

"Thanks."

A few minutes later she walked out of the cavern and looked at me. "What is it you needed to show me?" she asked.

"Put these on," I told her, holding out my Holo-Glasses.

She slid them on and I directed her so that she was looking directly at the Negashade slugs in the pit.

"So many Negashades," Aunt Karina commented.

"What should we do?" I asked her.

"Leave them there," she replied, removing the Glasses and handing them to me. "If they emerge, Blakk could get his hands on them, and that wouldn't be good."

"Okay," I replied. Yang looked down into the pit and chirped something at me.

"That's where you grew up?" I asked him. "Cool."

"You can understand slugs?" the Molenoid asked me.

"Yeah, more or less," I replied, walking back to the entrance.

We stood there, guarding the entrance for two hours before two more students came out to take our place.

"You have ten minutes to rest before you need to be doing something else," Aunt Karina told us as we walked into the cavern.

"Yes, Ms. Shane," we replied. We stretched our legs for a bit and rested before helping out the other classes.

"Need any help, Mark?" I asked Mark when I found him.

"Yeah," he replied. "We need help searching the pond for any Water-Element slugs. Every time we approach, though, any slugs around hide automatically."

"They're probably just not used to people," I explained. "Let your slugs convince them to come out," I added. My slugs jumped from their tubes and my backpack and dove into the water. A few minutes later they resurfaced with some Aquabeaks, Lariats, Jellyish, and a Makobreaker.

"Good idea, Jake!" Mark told me as he and the other students began writing notes about the slugs. My slugs returned to me and dried themselves off. "Thanks!"

"Anytime," I replied. I walked around and helped a Mecha student readjust the sensor he attached to his Mecha.

"Hey, Jake!" Luke called, riding up to me. "Can you help me out with something?"

"Sure! What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I just need somebody to look over my work," he replied, showing me a screen on his Mecha.

"Um, I don't really know what I'm doing, but…" I looked at the screen. It was a bunch of information on the terrain, air and soil content, and indigenous plants. "Looks good to me," I said.

"Thanks," he told me. He rode away and continued my work. There was nothing else for me to do, so I helped out one of the patrol groups. They were walking around the cavern, making sure that the peace was kept and that nothing found its way in that's unwelcome.

"Need an extra set of eyes?" I asked Emma, sneaking up from behind.

"Sure, that would help," she told me. She was by herself so I walked by her side.

"This cavern really is amazing," I commented. "The Negashades outside must help keep it hidden."

"What Negashades?" she asked me.

I explained the large colony of Negashades in the pit outside the cavern.

"Whoa, cool," she replied. "They must hide the bridge and entrance."

"Probably," I agreed.

We patrolled the outer edge of the cavern for a while before Aunt Karina fired her Phosphoro as a signal for us to gather at the meadow.

"We're going to take a break now for dinner," she told all of us.

We split up into small groups for dinner. I ate another sandwich and emptied my bottle of water, which Mark refilled with Squirt.

"Thanks," I said when I closed my refilled bottle of water.

"Anytime," he replied. "I wonder why nobody's ever been here before."

"It's probably because the bridge is so dangerous," I explained. "I'm not even sure if it'll hold up long enough for us to pass over it again."

"It should," Luke said. "It's help up this long."

"True," I added.

Before we could continue, though, there was a large explosion outside the cavern.

We ran out, but had to stop due to a small problem.

Somebody blew up the bridge.

"Oh, boy," Kord said when he saw it.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33—Stranded

Thanks for the amazing reviews! I would also like to thank Hills-to-Sky for lending me her OC.

* * *

"What're we going to do?" a student asked the professors. "We're stuck!"

"No, we are not stuck," Kord said. "We just need to find a solution to the problem presented to us. Does anybody have an idea?"

"Jump the gap!" somebody in the back of the crowd suggested.

"How?" a Mecha student demanded. "We can't get nearly enough speed on our Mechas to jump that gap. We'd all die."

"Build a bridge?" Luke suggested.

"How? We don't have any building materials!" a student screamed.

"Seriously?" Luke asked, his eyebrows rising. "Among us, I'm pretty sure we have plenty enough Frostcrawlers to build a bridge."

"Excellent point, Mr. Jones," Aunt Karina said. "We will need something to add grip, though, or we will slide right off the side."

"Arachnet webbing," I suggested. "It's really tough and sticky."

"Good idea. We'll start on this tomorrow, once we're fully rested," Kord told all of us. "Until then, relax and get some rest."

The group spread out around the cavern as the professors discussed what to do.

"Do you think their plan's going to work?" Emma asked me as we walked around the pond.

"I hope so," I replied. "We'll just have one shot, or else we'll have used all our Frostcrawlers and Arachnets."

"Yeah," she agreed.

The next day we woke up really early and Aunt Karina had everyone with a Frostcrawler line up at the entrance.

She had each person fire their slug over the gap. Every slug would add a bit to the bridge, little by little, until it reached all the way across. After that, the professors fired their own Frostcrawlers. Kord equipped their blasters with accelerators, so five Mega-Morphed Frostcrawlers soared over the improvised bridge, adding width and strength all at once.

"Now, I need people with Arachnets up front!" Aunt Karina told us. I went to the front of the line and fired Stinger over the bridge. He created a layer of webbing over it, adding both strength and a grippable surface.

After twenty more students fired Arachnets Aunt Karina tested out the bridge by slowly easing her Mecha across, Arachnet ready in case the bridge gave out.

When she made it across she motioned for a student to follow, then another, then another. Soon half of the students were over when the bridge let out a loud cracking noise.

"We need more support!" Aunt Karina said, launching her Mega-Morphed Frostcrawler. It spiraled around the bridge, adding support wherever it was needed before landing on the bridge and returning to her. The students that had crossed launched the Frostcrawlers back over to us, adding support.

"We'll get one more shot out of these guys before they get too tired out," Kord told us, loading his Frostcrawler. I snatched Aunt Karina's Frostcrawler and loaded it with energy so that when I launched it the slug Mega-Morphed and added quite a bit more support before I launched Freezer as well.

When all the slugs had been launched back to the other side the bridge had a considerable amount of extra support so that a Greneater couldn't even put a dent.

Kord went across this time and had the rest of the students follow him. The last of the professors crossed the bridge and they checked to make sure we were all there before forming up into our groups.

"Good job out there, Freezer," I told Freezer as I scooped him up and placed him in a slug tube. He just nodded, exhausted from rapid use.

We increased our speed on the way back to the University, traveling at a jog instead of a walk. We managed to avoid any and all troubles that might have appeared, so we arrived at the University earlier than planned.

When we arrived on campus several security slingers raced out of the main building and towards us.

"Professor Shane, we received your message," one of them said. "Is everything okay? We were right about to dispatch a recovery team."

"We took care of the problem," Aunt Karina replied. "We encountered issues along the way, though."

As she explained what happened Kord and the other professors told us to return to our dorm rooms to take care of our things then continue with our normal daily schedule.

It was only just past ten on a Saturday morning, so I decided to call my parents and see if they're home.

"Hello?" Trixie answered when I called the house.

"Hey, it's me, Jake," I replied.

"Hey, Jake!" she said. "What's up?"

"We just returned from a field trip, and I was wondering if you guys are home. It's been a few weeks since I've been home."

"Yeah, we're home," she replied. "We'll be here the entire weekend."

I smiled. "Great. I'll leave soon. Bye."

"Bye."

I ended the call and began packing a bag of clothes to take with me.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked me when he arrived.

"Home for the rest of the weekend," I told him. "You?"

"I'm just gonna stay here for the weekend," he replied.

"Wanna come with me? You can meet my parents' slugs and have a nice change of scenery for a weekend," I suggested.

"I don't want to be a burden."

"Oh, you'll be fine," I told him.

He nodded and packed enough clothes for a weekend before following me out.

"Just follow me," I told him after I strapped my duffel bag of clothes to Stryder's baggage grate.

We set off from the University and soon we were racing, seeing who had the faster Mecha.

It turned out, neither of us did.

We were right about to enter the cavern the Hideout's located in when a large black and blue blur flew by us, going in the same direction we were. The oddest part was, there was a dog sitting on the back.

"I wonder what that was about," I said. Luke just shrugged and we hit the throttles again, launching us forward in an effort to keep up with the other Mecha, which had disappeared from sight.

It took us ten minutes to reach the Hideout, and when we did our jaws dropped.

Outside the Hideout a large, black and blue Dragon Mecha. It looked very menacing, but since we didn't hear blaster fire yet I parked Stryder in the garage and Luke parked outside. The dog was still sitting on the Mecha, but she didn't do anything but watch us.

"Trixie? Eli?" I asked as we walked in. "You guys home?"

"Yeah, we're over here," Eli said from the living area.

We walked over to where they were sitting and saw an unfamiliar woman sitting in one of the chairs.

"Hey, how's school been?" Eli asked us.

"Pretty good," we replied. My eyes darted between Eli and the newcomer until they realized what the unasked question was.

"Oh, I'm Kaiya," the woman told us, standing up. "Kaiya Skye."


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34—Kaiya Skye

Thanks for the amazing reviews! Keep 'em coming!

* * *

"Nice to meet you," I replied, shaking her hand. "I'm Jacob Shane."

"I'm Luke Jones," Luke added.

She nodded and the three of us sat back down.

"Kaiya was passing through the cavern and decided to stop in," Trixie told us.

"Oh," I said.

"Did you say your last name's _Jones_?" Kaiya asked Luke.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Is your dad John Jones?" she asked him.

"Yeah. Why do you want to know?" he asked her.

"We're pretty good friends. Haven't seen him in a few months, though," she explained.

"Why did you stop by, Kaiya?" Eli asked her. "You never actually told us."

"This is why I came here," she told us. She pulled a slug tube out of her bag and showed us a ghouled slug.

"Where'd you get that?" Trixie demanded.

"Calm down," Kaiya told her. "You know I don't sling slugs. I was traveling through Scorched Sparks Cavern when somebody tried to rob me."

"I imagine that didn't go over well with you," I commented. She looked like the sort of person you wouldn't want to mess with.

"I'm not. I tried to scare him off with Skies, but the guy just launched this Greneater at me instead. I grabbed the slug when it returned to protoform and made sure the slinger wouldn't go after me as I came here to see if you know anything about it," she finished, setting the tube on the table.

"Actually, we have a pretty good idea of how the slinger came by this slug," Trixie commented as I healed the ghoul with Medic. Doc's away doing Guardian stuff.

"Well? Where did he get the slug?" Kaiya demanded.

"Blakk," Eli said.

"Impossible," she snapped. "Blakk is dead. I should know. I worked for him."

"What?" Luke and I said at the same time. "You worked for Blakk?"

"Yeah, I did. Now, be quiet so that Eli can finish," Kaiya told us. Eli narrowed his eyes at her for a second before continuing.

"Dr. Thaddeus Blakk is dead, but did you know he had a son?" Eli added.

"Leon…" Kaiya whispered, eyes widening. "I know that guy. Last time I saw him, a week before Blakk died, Leon wanted nothing to do with ghouls or what his father was doing with the Darkbane."

"Well, he began ghouling slugs again," I commented. "Twenty-five years has gone by since you saw him. That's a long time for a person to change."

"Will you help us this time?" Eli asked her. "Your past may have been with Blakk, but for your future you can change things for the better."

As she thought it over for a second the unghouled Grenuke slug hopped over to me and began chirping.

"Thank you for healing me. Can I join your team?" he asked me.

"Sure, little guy," I replied, allowing him to jump onto my hand. "How does the name 'Nuker' sound?"

He approved it and jumped into my backpack to meet the others.

"Have you made up your mind?" Eli asked Kaiya after a few minutes.

"Yes, I have," she replied, standing up. "I will not join you, but I will not join Leon," she told him. "I wish to remain neutral in this fight and not get drawn into anything."

"Okay," Eli said, knowing it would be pointless to push her further. "If you change your mind, though, you know where to find us."

"I'll let you know if I change my mind," she told them before walking out.

"Well that was…different," Luke commented. "Is it always like this here?"

"No, usually things are pretty calm," Trixie replied. "How are you doing, Luke?"

"I'm doing well, Mrs. Shane," Luke replied.

"Oh, just call me Trixie," she told him.

"Why didn't you invite the rest of your friends over?" Eli asked me. "We have plenty enough room."

"Emma needed to go home to take care of a few things and Mark had to stay at the University to work on a project for one of his classes," Luke explained before I could get a word out.

"Oh, okay," Eli replied. "What do you guys want to do today? We can go to Convertamail Cavern and hang out at the mall or go to Snowdance Cavern to see a movie. Any other ideas?"

"Snowdance Cavern sounds good," Luke said.

"Let's get ready, then," I said. I grabbed my slugs and made sure I had everything before jumping onto Stryder's saddle.

"How long does it take to get to Snowdance from here?" Luke asked us.

"About two hours at a slow pace," Trixie replied.

"I don't do 'slow'," Luke said with a laugh before hitting the throttle and launching his Mecha forward.

We raced after him and soon caught up, almost going at Stryder's full speed as we headed toward Snowdance Cavern.

We slowed down ten minutes later so that we would scare any more slugs and began talking about school.

"How was the field trip?" Eli asked us.

"It was…interesting," I replied as Luke and I looked at each other.

"What do you mean? Did something happen?" Trixie demanded.

"When _doesn't_ something happen?" I asked her. We explained what happened with the bridge leading to the cavern.

"Why didn't you contact us? We could've helped you," they demanded.

"We had a plan set up to get us out," I explained. "Besides, we had Aunt Karina and Kord with a few other professors to make sure we stayed safe."

"Yes, but—"

"Yeah, I know," I interrupted. "We should've let you know."

They let the subject dropped as we passed through another couple more caverns before finally arriving at Snowdance Cavern. We were just beginning to settle down to wait for it to begin when somebody decided to interrupt.

And by 'interrupt', I mean 'try to kill us'.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 25—Interruption

Thanks for the amazing reviews!

The movie projector was just beginning to turn on when a large explosion shook the ground.

"Please tell me the Ice Ogres didn't wake up again," Eli groaned.

As it turns out, Ice Ogres didn't cause the interruption.

A few seconds later another explosion shook the ground, but it emanated from outside the Cavern, so we turned our Mechas around and went outside to check it out.

"Ah, I wondered how many blasts it would take to draw you out," Blakk announced when he saw us emerge. He had launched several Harmashelts and Greneaters at the opening to cause the shaking.

"Boys, go back inside," Eli told Luke and I. "This isn't your fight."

"Oh, but it is," Blakk added. "You see, I'm still greatly interested in your son's…abilities."

"Does that mean we finally get a shot at this dude?" Luke asked, drawing his blaster and loading Typhoon.

"Luke, Jake, do as Eli says," Trixie told us. "You're not ready for this fight."

"Oh, really?" I said. "I've been ready. I still owe this guy for trying to kidnap me on my way back to the University."

"He did _what?_" Trixie screeched. Before we could say anything else she launched Mega-Morphed Bluster at Blakk followed by an Arachnet and an Armashelt.

"Oh, you really should control your temper," Blakk told her, knocking down Bluster with a Mega-Morphed Greneater and launching the Arachnet and Armashelt back at us with a Mega-Morph Attacknet.

"Duck!" Eli shouted as the slugs raced out of the way. We didn't have to, though, because the two slugs swerved to avoid us.

We all loaded slugs and launched them back at Blakk. Quite a few goons emerged from the bushes and knocked down our slugs. It was all we could do to hold our own, even with Mega-Morphed slugs.

They were beginning to push us back into Snowdance Cavern when Blakk's eyes widened slightly with an idea. He loaded and fired a Mega-Morphed Greneater above us and it stuck to the wall, detonating after a few seconds of delay.

Unfortunately, he got the slug in a crack, so the crack widened more and more until a large slab above the entrance broke off and fell toward us.

"No!" I screamed as I leaped off Stryder and caught the slab, using my powers to lift it. It wasn't enough, though, and the slab began to slowly push me down until I was on a knee.

"Get out of the way!" I yelled at my parents and Luke. They scrambled out of the way, but before Luke could get clear the slab was hit by a Harmashelt, causing it to lurch in his direction.

"Luke!" I screamed at him. He spun around and saw the slab fall upon him, but then something happened.

His eyes began to glow orange.

He held out his arms and caught the slab, and the two of us managed to throw the giant rock back at Blakk and his goons, but in that time they managed to escape.

"Looks like you're not the only one with super-strength," Luke told me. He smiled and loaded Dune. Within a second he launched the slug and it Mega-Morphed almost right away, zooming to the closest goon and trapping him in a pit of quicksand.

"Yeah, cool. Just don't show off your powers so much," I warned him. "You'll draw attention."

"Yeah, okay," he replied, distracted. The orange light in his eyes gradually faded and we returned to the Hideout, collecting our slugs along the way.

"Looks like we've identified three of the gifted," I commented when we got back.

"Three? Who's the other one?" Eli asked us.

"Emma has the gift of speed," I explained. "Don't tell her I said this, but she actually has better control over her powers than any of us."

"We won't," Eli said with a chuckle. "Well, since the 'movie' idea was ruined, what do you guys want to do?"

"We could still go shopping," Trixie offered.

We were about to agree to her idea when Luke got a call on his Data Pad and I got one on my Holo-Glasses.

"Who is this?" I asked when I answered the call.

"Hey, it's Emma," Emma told me. I could faintly hear blaster fire in the distance.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked her.

"Blakk heard about my abilities. Now he's trying to hunt me down," she explained.

"We're on our way. Where are you?" I asked her as Luke talked to Mark. Apparently, Blakk was also having some of his goons attack Futuria Cavern as well.

"I'm currently hiding out in the house Red Hook used to live in, in Quiet Lawn Cavern," she replied. "I'm not sure how long it'll be before they find me, though."

"Emma needs our help," I told Luke after I assured Emma that we would help her.

"So does Mark," Luke replied.

"I'll help Emma. You help Mark," I suggested as I made sure I had my team gathered.

"Wait, you shouldn't go fight Blakk and his goons by yourself," Eli told us. "We'll go with you."

"I'll go with Luke to Futuria," Trixie added. "I'll call Kord to have him provide backup."

"We'll go to Quiet Lawn and have Pronto meet us there," Eli added.

"Good luck," Luke added before we left with our slugs.

As we left and went in separate directions Eli called Pronto while Trixie called Kord.

"This new Dr. Blakk is very treacherous," Pronto said when he met up with us outside of Quiet Lawn Cavern an hour or two later.

"Yeah, he is," I replied. "What's the plan?"

"You tell us," Eli told me. "It's your friend."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36—The Plan

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* * *

"We'll need a distraction so that we can get to Emma and get her out of the cavern," I said. "Pronto and I will do that. Stinky and Yang will be plenty enough to make sure they don't get anywhere. Once that's done we spread out through the cavern to look for Emma. I'll go to the north, Eli to the northwest and Pronto to the northeast. If anything goes wrong, call the rest of us."

"Good plan, chief," Eli complimented me with a pat on the back.

"Thanks. Now, let's go."

We climbed back into our Mechas and Pronto and I went first into the cavern. He loaded Stinky as I loaded Yang so that, once we had clear shots, Mega-Morphed them. Stinky caused countless numbers of goons to begin gagging as Yang made sure they couldn't see anything.

"Now, spread out," I told them as I loaded my blaster with Freezer.

We set off through the cavern and I went at a full sprint to the house Red Hook used to live in, using heat-sensing technology on my Glasses to see through Yang's darkness. Because of that, I managed to avoid three goons, two misfired Hop Jacks, and a scared kid.

A few minutes later I arrived at the house, but my fears were confirmed.

Blakk's Mecha was outside.

"Eli, Pronto, I found Emma. I think Blakk found her as well, though," I told them once they accepted my call. They acknowledged me and began heading for my location.

"We need to make sure Blakk didn't get his hands on her," I told them. "I'll do some recon. You guys need to make sure no more goons try to get in here."

They nodded and I loaded Yang again as I dismounted Stryder and cautiously approached the house.

"What do you mean, the girl's not here?" I heard Blakk demand when I got close enough to a window to listen. I saw him slam his fist down on the table. "I thought we traced that call she made to the Shane boy!"

"We did, but she left before we could apprehend her," the goon told him. "She is extremely fast."

"Yes, I know she is. Just find her!" Blakk screamed. "Keep your eyes out for the Shanes, too. They'll most likely be on their way to save her."

I crept away from the window and sprinted back to the others, where I climbed back onto Stryder.

"Emma got away. We need to find her," I told them, revving the engine.

"Ah, the Shanes," Blakk said before we could get away. "How lovely to see you again."

"Run!" I yelled, hitting the throttle. I somehow managed to release some of my power into the Mecha, causing its eyes to glow a brighter blue as its speed increased so that we could get away.

"Where would she have gone?" Eli asked me.

We slowed then eventually stopped directly beneath the large rock with all the Grenukes hanging from the bottom.

"The one spot that would be too dangerous to go," I said, pointing straight up.

We rode our Mechas up to the top of the large arch-shaped rock, and that was where we found Emma.

"Emma!" I said to get her attention. She was sitting on the ground, watching everything go by below.

Her head snapped over in our direction, and was reaching for her blaster when she realized who we were.

"Jake! Mr. Shane! Pronto!" she gasped. She stood up and ran over to us at normal speed. I climbed off Stryder's back and she tackled me in a hug.

"Whoa, there," I replied. "You okay?"

"Of course she is now that the magnificent Pronto is here to help her!" Pronto yelled. "Why wouldn't she be?"

"First of all, you can't yell up here," Emma told him as his shouts echoed through the cavern. "Second, a bunch of goons are now headed our way," she added as a dozen of Blakk's men ran toward the arch.

"Capture them alive!" Blakk shouted as he approached us.

We soon began firing slugs, though, and it became apparent that they weren't shooting to capture anymore.

"I'm starting to run low on ammo!" I said when I launched my second-to-last slug, Stinger.

The others said nothing, though, and we focused on the battle.

When I ran out of slugs I just cursed and holstered my blaster, allowing by power to flow freely.

"Get behind me!" I told the others. They did as I said and I screamed, letting out a burst of energy just like the first time I used my powers. It pushed back all of Blakk's men and his slugs while allowing us to stay put.

"Good timing, Medic," I told my healer when she got back to me a few seconds later. "You're gonna need extra power to take down all these ghouls, though."

"Use Doc," Eli told me. The healer slug had arrived when we got to Quiet Lawn Cavern.

I pulled out my double barrel mod but hesitated. A fusion shot has never been attempted with slugs of the same species, and I wasn't even sure if they were compatible.

Eli sensed my hesitation, though, and launched Mo at me. When he hit me, though, I wasn't even sure if it worked. My vision wasn't blurry or affected in the slightest, but when I looked at the two healer slugs I saw their auras, which were compatible.

"Looks like gifted people aren't affected by Enigmos," I commented as I attached the mod and loaded the two slugs. I loaded the blaster with energy and pulled the trigger, launching the slugs high into the air.

When they reached their highest they let out an extremely bright light. It was even brighter than usual, but when it faded every ghoul on the arch had been healed.

"Whoa," I mumbled as I staggered back a step. Using my powers so much was very draining.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked me as Eli and Pronto continued the fight, pushing Blakk and his men back before finally making them run away with a fusion shot of Suds and Stinky, which created a major stink bomb.

"Yeah, just a little drained," I replied. "I'll be fine. We should get going, though, so that we can help Mark's cavern."

"My Mecha's not far from here," Emma told us. We rode over to her Mecha, and when she was ready we took off to go to Futuria Cavern so that we could help Mark.

As we raced to help Mark, Emma updated me on what happened to her. Apparently, Blakk found Emma's records and found her in Quiet Lawn Cavern. When she saw the first goon enter the cavern she took off for Red Hook's house, where she called me a few minutes later.

"Why is Mark's cavern being attacked?" I thought out loud.

"Blakk knew we would split up to help out our friends, so this would increase his chances of catching one of us alive," she suggested. I frowned and we hit the throttle, going full speed to Futuria Cavern. Even then, it would take us at least twenty minutes.

"Is your Mecha a Shane Edition?" I asked Emma. Shane Edition Mechas have most of the same mods as the Shane Gang's Mechas.

"Yeah, but my parents never gave me the key that unlocks the extra mods," Emma replied, catching on to what I was talking about.

"I have the master key," Eli told us, holding out a key. "It was so that we could unlock Jake's when he was ready, but this is an emergency."

We stopped our Mechas as Eli unlocked Emma's Mecha followed by mine.

"You're going to need helmets," Eli told us. "Unfortunately, I only have one extra," he added, holding out a helmet with the same blue and black design as Stryder.

"You should wear it," I told Emma when my mods were unlocked. "I'll be fine."

"No, you should wear it," Emma told me. "It's your helmet, anyways."

I kept insisting until she finally put it on. It didn't exactly go with her outfit, but it would work.

"Don't tell your mother I let you use this without a helmet," Eli told me as we all pressed green buttons on our Mechas.

As Eli and Pronto's Mechas transformed into vehicle mode ours did as well. Emma's transformed into a buggy similar to Trixie's Mecha as my body stretched so that I was practically lying down as Stryder transformed into…

"What's this thing called?" I asked Eli as I sat up.

"On the Surface they're known as crotchrockets."

"Mom is going to kill Kord when she finds out what he built me," I told him.

"It also has a dirt bike mode for use around your mother," he added. He pressed a button and I had to lie back down as a thick sheet of clear acrylic slid over my head for protection and aerodynamics.

"Let's go," Eli told us. We hit the throttle and left the cavern, going at more than double our original speed, easily getting to Futuria Cavern in less than ten minutes.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37—Rescue

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"Where is everyone?" Emma asked as we arrived in the cavern. It looked abandoned.

"This does not look good," Pronto stated as we passed a few RoboSlugs.

"I thought Quentin was in Stalagmite 17," I commented, referring to the infamous inventor of the RoboSlug.

"The new Doctor Blakk helped me out," Quentin announced from atop a statue.

"Where are our friends?" Emma demanded.

"Oh, they're hiding somewhere," he replied dismissively. "Now that I have no weaknesses, I am unstoppable!"

"Not quite," Kord said, emerging from a building with Trixie and Luke, blasters loaded.

"You couldn't beat me with slugs before. What makes you think you can win now?" Quentin demanded with a crazed laugh.

"We've gotten better these past 25 years while you've sat in prison," Eli snapped. We all loaded a slug and fired at once.

Quentin jumped over Bludgeon and managed to avoid every slug except for Burpy, whom was taken down by a RoboSlug.

"You still can't beat me! I love it!" Quentin screamed as he loaded another Slug and fired it at me.

I dove away and launched Speed, but he missed Quentin and wasn't given another though as he ricocheted around the cavern.

"Is that really all you've got?" Quentin demanded. "That was the worst excuse for a shot I've ever seen!"

"Don't be so sure about that," I replied as I caught Speedy and got ready. Ever since I discovered my powers I had wanted to try this. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but it was the only way for me to surprise him.

The grin on Quentin's face soon vanished as my eyes turned blue and I threw Speedy as hard as I could. I almost threw my arm out of its socket, but Speedy immediately velocimorphed, knocking Quentin out cold.

"How did you do that?" Eli asked me. "I didn't think you would be strong enough."

I shrugged. "I've got the gift of strength," I told them. "It's what I do."

"Guys?" Emma asked us. "Where's Mark?"

"Right here," Mark said, emerging from a locked building. Citizens soon appeared from their homes and tied up Quentin.

"We'll make sure he going back to Stalagmite 17," one of the citizens told us.

We nodded and made sure Mark was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured us after we asked him several times. A long cut along his leg spoke otherwise.

"At least let Medic do something about your leg," I told him, gesturing to the cut.

"Fine," he grumbled.

I loaded Medic and gave her as much energy as she could handle before launching her at his leg. There was a bright light, but when it faded all that remained of the cut was a pink scar, which was rapidly fading.

"Thanks, man," Mark told us.

"What are you going to do after this?" Emma asked him.

"Probably go back to the University and finish my project," he replied. "I just went home to visit family."

He introduced us to his parents before we had to leave.

"What are you going to do next?" I asked Emma as we went back to Quiet Lawn Cavern to drop her off.

"I don't know," she replied. "My parents were visiting family several caverns north of here, so there probably won't be home at all this weekend."

"You can stay with us," Trixie offered. "We have plenty of rooms you can stay in."

"Oh, I don't want to be a burden," she replied. "I can just hand around my house."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Eli told her. "It'll be fun!"

After a few more minutes we convinced her to stay at the Hideout, so we left the Cavern.

"Here's your helmet," Emma told me, tossing me my helmet.

"Why did you have that helmet?" Trixie asked me.

"Um…" I chose the less dangerous path for me. "Eli unlocked our extra mods so that we could reach Futuria faster," I said rapidly.

"Thanks for not telling your mother about this," Eli said sarcastically as she glared at him.

"Hey, I don't wanna go down for something you did," I replied. It was a horrible excuse, but I didn't want to be the one getting yelled at.

"You can only use the vehicle mode for emergencies, okay?" Trixie asked me.

"Okay," I replied. We rode the rest of the way to the Hideout, where Kord insisted we have a barbecue.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38—BBQ!

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Trixie tried to dissuade Kord from it, but he kept asking until she finally gave in.

"Woohoo!" Kord screamed. "Cookout time!"

"Want us to help out?" Eli asked him.

"Yeah. Eli, you get the hot dogs cooking, I'll make the burgers and Trixie can make a side to go with it," Kord told them.

As they set to work we relaxed and I gave Luke and Emma a tour of the Hideout before we went outside to train a bit.

"Hey, Jake," Luke said when he and Emma finished a practice duel. "Could you build me a double barrel mod like yours?"

"Maybe," I replied. "It wasn't easy building the first one, and I had help then."

"What are you guys talking about?" Eli asked us.

"Luke was asking me to building him a double barrel mod like mine," I replied.

"How did you get a double barrel mod?" he asked me.

"I built it at the University," I explained, showing him my new mod.

"That's some pretty solid construction there," Kord commented, plucking the mod from my hands. "You're pretty talented, kid," he added.

"Thanks, Kord," I replied, grabbing the mod from him and placing it in my bag.

"How about we try that thing out?" Eli asked me with a sly grin on his face.

I returned the smiled and we walked to a clearing meant for dueling.

"I hope you've gotten better since the last time we dueled," Eli told me, "because it's going to take more than a new mod to beat me."

"I know," I replied before loading and launching Scorch at Eli. He was shot down by a Mega-Morphed Chiller.

"Hey! That's not fair!" I complained. "You have more Mega-Morphs than me!"

"Yeah, but you're the one with superpowers," Eli replied as he loaded Joules.

I dodged the slug and Mega-Morphed Yang to distract Eli until I could come up with a game plan. I only had two Mega-Morphs and Eli's entire arsenal could Mega-Morph except for Noodle, of course.

The only things I had as advantages were my powers and my ability to rapidly recharge my mods.

Before I could think further Eli launched Shiner to dispel the darkness and added Noodle to distract me.

I caught Noodle and threw him back at Eli. I got lucky and caused his blaster long enough for me to pull out my double barrel mod.

"Freezer, Blaster," I said. "You wanna try this?"

They nodded so I loaded the two slugs and aimed for a spot above Eli's head.

I launched the slugs.

Success! The slugs joined together to form one that looks like a Blastipede with a Frostcrawler color scheme.

When they were at the right spot they launched their whit grenades, coating Eli with them.

"Now!" I called. They returned to their individual protoforms and Blaster allowed his antennae to touch, creating an icy explosion that encased Eli in ice.

"And _that_ wins me the duel," I commented as I pulled the blaster from his frozen hand.

By the time Burpy was able to thaw out Eli I had loaded both blasters and aimed them at him.

"You've gotten better," he complimented me when he surrendered.

"I can't remember the last time Eli lost, let alone to a teenager," Kord commented as we ate.

"Yeah, yeah," Eli said with a laugh.

We talked about the duel for the rest of dinner, and when it was over Kord and Pronto left for their homes.

"What do you guys want to do tomorrow?" Trixie asked us as we cleaned up after dinner.

"We can go on that shopping trip we were planning," I suggested.

"Ooh! Shopping!" Emma squealed. "Can we go? Can we? Can we? Can we?"

"Sure," Eli said with a chuckled.

We stayed up pretty late that night talking and goofing around, but Trixie and Eli had to get some sleep, so it was soon just the three of us.

"Did you guys see how I beat Eli?" I asked them.

They silenced, looked at each other, and burst out laughing even louder than before.

"What's so funny?" I demanded.

"Jake, Eli let you win," Luke told me before he continued laughing.

"Didn't you notice how he hardly broke a sweat?" Emma asked me.

I glared at them but remained silent the rest of the night until Burpy sent us to bed.

"You guys ready to go?" Eli asked us the next morning when we were all ready.

"Yeah," all of our slugs and us replied.

We left the Hideout on our Mechas and were soon in Convertamail Cavern, which is right next to the one we were in.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39—Shopping

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"Where do you guys want to go first?" Eli asked us when we had parked our Mechas and were inside the mall. When he didn't get an answer he turned in time to see us take of in different directions. Luke went to a Mecha parts shop, Emma and Trixie went shopping for clothes, and I entered a blaster part store to look for the materials to build three more double barrel mods.

I had been walking around the store for five minutes, placing items in the cart, when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"What're you doing here, Shane?" Vinyl asked me as she walked by.

"Shopping. What about you?" I replied as I turned to face her. She was standing there with a small basket containing extra parts.

"Same," she replied. Before I could add anything more she grabbed a spare fusion core and moved on.

"How do you plan on paying for all this?" Eli asked me when he caught up with at the register.

"Birthday money and prize money from competitions," I explained as I paid the proper amount and carried my things out in a box.

When we left we went off in pursuit of the others. I looked for Luke as Eli left to look for the girls.

"Whatcha looking for?" I asked Luke when I found him in the Mecha Parts store.

"Just found it," he replied, grabbing a pack of wiring. I went with him to the cashier and as we walked out Eli found us, Emma and Trixie with him.

"Ready to get some lunch?" Eli asked us.

Before we could answer Luke's face lit up and he yelled "Dad!" and took off for his father, who was walking by with a woman I assumed to be his mother.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" John asked. "I thought you were staying at school for the weekend."

"Jake offered to let me stay at his house for the weekend," Luke explained.

"Hello, Twist," Eli said stiffly.

John froze and turned to face us. "Hey, Eli," he replied. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has," Eli told him.

"I heard our sons told you the truth about me?" John added.

"Yeah, they did," he replied.

"And…?"

"And I believe what they told me about you," Eli told him stiffly.

His shoulders sagged slightly. "You haven't forgiven me, have you?"

"It'll take longer than this for those scars to heal," Eli said.

John seemed disappointed, but nodded. He introduced us to his wife, a kind woman their age, and Luke hugged them again before a large explosion shook the building.

"Please tell me Blakk didn't follow us here," I groaned as we ran to the entrance.

As Luke explained everything to his parents we edged from the building and found John Martin pointing the one thing at us that would make me worry.

A Gatler Blaster.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40—Seriously? A Gatler?

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"What do you want?" Luke demanded as we loaded slugs.

"I've got orders to bring you and the Shane boy to Blakk," he snarled. "At whatever cost." That's when he started firing.

"Duck!" Eli yelled, as if we didn't already know.

We jumped out of the way and fired our own slugs.

"Do you have your double barrel mod with you?" John asked Eli.

"No, I left it at home," Eli replied, launching Sparky to take down a Harmashelt.

I pulled out my own mod and loaded Speedy and Stinger.

"I really hope this works," I muttered before charging it and firing the shot.

The shot worked, so Speedy trailed webbing as he ricocheted, creating an intricate web around Martin. Speedy was even able to fasten the Gatler to the ground before the fusion slug returned to two individual slugs.

"Good job, guys!" I told the slugs as we kept firing at Martin, who somehow managed to cut the webbing with a small knife.

Every slug he fired at us, though, got caught in the webbing and immediately returned to protoform until he fired several Thrashers that destroyed the web.

"Where's Doc?" Trixie asked Eli as Emma took down a Harmashelt with Bruiser.

"He's protecting the portal," Eli replied.

I got the idea and loaded Medic.

"Do you think you can handle MegaMorph?" I asked Medic. She shrugged so I doubtfully charged her with energy, she didn't MegaMorph, but the speed didn't throw her off, so she was able to heal most of the ghouls in the area, excluding the few remaining in the Gatler.

"You're out of slugs," I said when the last ghoul was fired. We emerged from our spots and surrounded him.

"Not quite," he replied. He pulled out his blaster and launched an unfamiliar ghoul at us.

"Tempesto!" Eli shouted. We took off as fast as we could for our Mechas.

When we arrived at them the Tempesto was almost on top of us, so we hit the throttle and took off, barely outrunning it before it created a dark cyclone.

"More speed!" Trixie screamed. We gave it all we had, but soon the pull was too great.

"We need more speed!" John yelled.

"Hook up the Mechas!" Luke told us. We did as he said.

"Give your Mechas extra power with your powers!" Luke told Emma and I.

We did as he said, and the lights brightened as we began gaining ground.

"Fire your Arachnets!" John yelled.

I loaded Stinger and MegaMorphed him. Five Arachnets raced ahead of us, launching webbing back at us to anchor the Mechas.

We continued like this for thirty seconds before the cyclone finally disappeared. The Mall was undamaged, but John Martin was nowhere in sight.

"Things are just going to get worse, aren't they?" I asked Eli as Luke said goodbye to his parents and we began heading home.

He nodded solemnly as we passed a lonely Flopper.

"Hey there, little guy," I said, stopping my Mecha to pick up the slug. "What happened?"

"My slinger abandoned me for a Flaringo," he replied.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "How about you stick with me? I promise to never abandon you."

He looked doubtful, but Speedy convinced him to join me.

"How about I call you…Slip?" I asked him.

He nodded and jumped into my bag.

"That was nice, what you did with the Flopper," Emma told me.

"I felt bad for the little guy," I replied.

"Well, today's certainly been very eventful," Luke commented as we walked into the Hideout. The slugs Eli and Trixie left behind swarmed around us, asking what happened.

Our slugs explained it to them as we took care of our things.

"You three should probably get going back to SU," Eli told us when we had eaten lunch.

"Okay." We grabbed our things and strapped them onto our Mechas.

"See ya in one week!" I yelled over my shoulder as we took off.

"This is definitely going to be the most interesting weekend I've ever had," I commented when we got to the University.

"Definitely," Emma agreed. Mark met us at the main building, where we split up to go to our own dorms.

That night at dinner we explained to Mark what happened over the weekend.

"You guys are so lucky," Mark mumbled when we finished. "You're the one with superpowers."

"Hey, don't think like that," Emma told him. "There are still two gifted teens out there that we haven't discovered. As far as we know, you could be one of them."

"Yeah, sure," Mark said.

"We kept trying to cheer him up, but eventually dropped the subject.

"Hey, Mark," one of his classmates said. "What's the answer to question four on the homework?"  
"76.523," Mark replied without blinking.

"How were you able to figure that out so easily?" Luke asked Mark as the student walked away.

Mark looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and when he was sure nobody was, he grinned cleverly and blinked. When his eyes opened, though, they were different.

They were glowing green.

"When did that happen?" I asked him.

"Yesterday," he replied. He held up Spike. "I even MegaMorphed him to be sure," he said. The spikes are now dark red, his back is a few shades darker, and his belly is brown.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Emma demanded.

"I wanted to surprise you," he replied, smile plastered on his face.

"Well, you certainly surprised us," I told him.

His smile widened.

"Now it looks like we only have one more gifted to find," Emma commented.

We agreed and finished dinner before going to Mark's room, which he has all too himself. There was an entire wall covered in books.

We spent the next few hours going through a list of the people our age at the University, but eventually gave up when nobody would work.

"Mark, what _is_ your gift?" Luke asked him.

"Intelligence," Mark said distractedly, going through a list of names.

When we didn't find any matches we shredded the lists and went to our own rooms to get some rest.

Over the next few weeks nothing very significant happened, so I'll summarize it for you. I won two tournaments, and the prize of one was a Hypnogrif slug I named Hypno. Emma also won a Boon Doc she named Mage in a tournament. No more gifted appeared, but we kept our eyes open until the final person would reveal him or herself.

About a month later, though, disaster struck.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41—Disaster

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* * *

I had just finished one of my Blaster courses when Aunt Karina pulled me away from the others and practically dragged me to her office.

"What was that about?" I demanded when we arrived.

"Sorry, but this is too urgent for formalities," she told me. She pulled up a video of the Shane Gang charging into Blakk Headquarters.

"This happened last night," she told me. "Approximately an hour later, this happened," she added, moving to a point where the main building collapsed. "The only known survivors were Kord, Pronto, and Blakk," she added.

"Eli and Trixie?" I gasped.

"MIA," she replied. "I'm sorry, Jacob. Kord and Pronto took Blakk to Stalagmite 17 to be questioned. They can't get any info from him, though."

"Let me go to him," I told her. "I can make him talk."

"No," she said firmly. "It's too dangerous."

"It wasn't a request," I told her. I stood up and began walking out.

"Jacob, wait!" she yelled, grabbing my wrist.

I pulled myself free and turned towards her, eyes glowing brightly blue. "I'm going to find my parents, even if I have to go to the Deep Caverns and fight Brimstone himself."

I emerged from the building and ran to Stryder. Our first stop was the Hideout, where I armed myself with the remaining slugs before going to Stalagmite 17. When I arrived Kord was waiting for me.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"Come with me," he told me he led me inside and past several cells before reaching a room. In the middle of that room was a cell closed in with thick glass.

In the cell was none other than Dr. Blakk.

"I thought Karina didn't want you to come," Pronto commented when he saw me.

"She didn't," I replied. I walked over to the cell. "Did you get anything out of him?" I asked them.

"Nothing."

I turned to look at them.

"No. Absolutely not," Kord said. "We're not going to let you be alone with this guy."

"This could be our only way to find Eli and Trixie," I said. "Please."

Kord scowled at me but the two of them left.

"I thought they'd never leave," Blakk sighed.

"Where are my parents?" I demanded, pounding on the glass. I didn't mean to, but the glass began to crack.

"Tempesto slugs…very useful, aren't they?" he chuckled.

I immediately feared the worst.

"What did you do to them?" I yelled.

"Isn't it obvious?" he sneered. "Didn't your 'parents' ever tell you where a Tempesto's portal leads?"

The Dark Caverns.

My rage took over. I broke the glass and charged in without a second thought. I was right about to beat his face in when Kord charged in.

"Jacob!" Kord shouted. He ran at me and pinned my arms behind me, but I easily broke free. It was enough to get me to snap out of my rage.

"What was that about?" Kord demanded.

"I know where Eli and Trixie are," I told them.

"Where?" Pronto asked.

"The Deep Caverns," I said.

Kord and Pronto gasped as Blakk chuckled evilly.

"We need to rescue them," I told them.

"No, _we_ are going," Kord said, pointing to him and Pronto. "You're too young to do this, and your mother would kill us if you got hurt."

"You were the same age as me the first time you entered the Deep Caverns," I argued.

"You're in school, and your parents would kill us if they found out about this," he told me. "You're not going, and that's final."

I scowled and stormed out.

"One thing's for sure, and that's that I'm going to save ELI and Trixie," I told my slugs. They chirped in support.

I jumped on Stryder's saddle and rode to my dorm room to pick up any extra mods I had.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked me.

"Private trip. Might not be back for a day or two," I told him.

I climbed back onto Stryder's back and went to the area leading to the portal to the Deep Caverns.

"Jacob," a familiar voice said behind me. I turned and saw Aunt Karina approaching on her Mecha.

"Let me guess," I replied. "You're here to stop me."

"Don't do this," she told me. "You're not powerful enough to survive in the Deep Caverns."

My eyes began to glow again.

"Oh, yes I am," I told her.

"Don't go, Jacob," she requested. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Why do you care?" I demanded. "You're not even my real aunt."

It was a very low blow, but I felt like I had to rescue them.

"That doesn't matter," she told me, tears shining on her cheek. "What matters is that I don't want you to go."

"Why?" I demanded.

"Because you're my son!" she screamed.

My eyes widened. "What?" I whispered.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42—What?

Thanks for the reviews! Finally ungrounded! Yay!

She sighed. "When I was younger, I fell in love," she told me. "We kept it a secret because of my highly secretive work with the Shane Gang.

About a year later, though, I learned I was pregnant with a child. We were scared out of our minds and excited at the same time. When the child's father died in an attack before he was born, I knew I wouldn't be able to raise a child by myself, so I let a nice couple adopt my child, a son. I insisted he keep the name I gave him, Jacob, and they gave him their last name, Taylor."

She took a deep breath and continued. "When the couple was killed I pleaded with Eli and Trixie to get them to adopt the child. When they did, I was able to watch that little boy grow into the powerful person in front of me," she finished, tears beginning to flow.

My eyes widened further as my brain struggle to process all the information.

"Jacob, I know that you want to do this, but I'm telling you that you don't," she told me. "The Deep Caverns are like nothing you've ever known. Even your powers may not be enough to help you survive there."

"I have to try," I told her. "If I don't, who will?"

"Well, we could help for starters," Mark, Emma, and Luke said as the approached.

"You guys shouldn't be here," I told them.

"We could tell you the same thing," Emma replied.

"We heard what happened to your parents," Luke said. "We're gonna help you rescue them."

"You could get killed," I warned them.

Their eyes glowed. "I'd like to see them try," Luke told me.

"None of you should go," Aunt Karina/Mom said.

"We have the best chance of getting in and out alive," I told her.

"And what if you don't make it back alive?" she demanded. "How would your parents feel?"

"If we don't go, Jake's parents could die instead," Luke said.

Before she could say anything more the three of them continued along the tunnel behind us.

"I'm sorry, but I need to bring Eli and Trixie home," I told her before following the others.

"Goodbye…Mom," I added before rounding a corner.

"Did you just call Ms. Shane 'Mom'?" Mark asked me when the portal came into sight.

"It's a long story," I replied.

As we approached the portal one of the Shadow Clan appeared in front of us. Even though we normally couldn't understand it, we were somehow able to understand now.

"What do you want?" I demanded. My voice was different, though. It sounded like Shadow Clan speak.

"What did you just say?" Emma asked me. Apparently I'm the only one that understands them.

"How is it you speak to us without the Shadow Talker?" the creature hissed.

I allowed my eyes to glow blue and the others followed suit.

"You are four of the Five," it hissed in what I could assume was a surprised tone.

"That's us," I said. "We need to rescue Eli and Trixie Shane."

"You may not pass through this portal," it replied. "It will only open for emergency situations."

"Like if we somehow made it into the Dark Caverns with a Shadow Walker?" I asked.

It narrowed its eyes but nodded. "Return to the portal when you have finished your business. Beware: if your return threatens SlugTerra, I will not let you pass," it warned me as I pulled out a Shadow Walker Eli kept at the Hideout. I grabbed it as I went to the portal site.

"Put your hands on the Walker," I told my friends, holding it to them.

They did, but right as I was activating it my real mother came running at us. She managed to grab onto the Walker as we teleported, bringing her with us.

"Welcome to the Deep Caverns," she told us when we recovered from teleportation.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43—Where All Your Nightmares Come True

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"It's not as scary as I thought," I commented as I looked around.

"No, it's scarier," Karina told me. I'm not completely used to calling her 'Mom', so I'm just calling her 'Karina' for now.

I didn't argue so we continued along the empty plain until we saw Darkbane guards guarding two prisoners as they went to the palace. We couldn't see the prisoners, but we could see the blasters to know they were Eli and Trixie.

"We need a plan," I said, conceding to Karina.

She nodded and began laying out a long, complicated plan.

"This has a very low rate of success, but I can't think of anything else," Mark told us when she finished.

We nodded to show that we would go along with the plan, so Karina walked over to a ridge while we spread out to our positions.

"Go, Emma," Karina told her. Emma took off, using her speed to get past the guards without detection and place communication devices in Eli and Trixie's ears.

"Eli, if you can hear me, look up," Karina said into her mouthpiece.

Eli looked at the top of the Cavern.

"I'm here with a team to get you out of there," she said. "Stay as you are, but when I give you the word you two need to hit the ground. Cough if you understand."

Both of them coughed, so we took positions, loading slugs.

"Now. Dive!" she hissed. Eli and Trixie dove to the ground as we fired on the Darkbane. Casper took out one and a fusion shot of Yang and Medic took out the other.

"I've only seen one other slinger pull off a fusion shot like that," Eli told me as we untied them.

"Not now," I told him. "Where are your slugs?"

"We made them leave as Blakk loaded the Tempesto," Trixie coughed.

"We need to get you two out of here," I told them. Luke and I carried them as we ran to the portal as fast as we could. Before we could get there, though, a Behemoth charged at us.

"We'll get this," Luke and I said, setting down Eli and Trixie.

As we pushed it back and managed to get it on its side the others kept going, reaching the portal a few seconds before us.

"Let us through!" I yelled, pounding on the barrier. The Clan member appeared but soon disappeared.

"What was that about?" Karina demanded.

"That!" Luke shouted as we turned to see an army of Darkbane charging at us.

"Oh, boy," I muttered as we loaded and began firing MegaMorphs.

"Does the Shadow Walker work down here?" Emma demanded.

"No," Trixie told us. "The dark energy doesn't let it work."

"Challenge accepted," I mumbled. I pulled out the Walker and charged it with as much energy as I could. Right as my vision began flickering it lit up.

I pressed the button and we were immediately teleported to the other end of the portal.

"Look who it is," Blakk said as we recovered.

"How did you escape?" Luke demanded.

"I have many friends," he sneered.

I tried to use another fusion shot of Yang and Medic, but didn't have enough energy left to charge the shot.

Emma noticed and grabbed my blaster. She immediately charged it and somehow got enough energy in the slugs for the two slugs to MegaMorph.

The result was devastating.

Blakk jumped out of the way, but the blast hit his shoulder. He fell to the ground, but managed to stand up again. He lifted dual blasters, and in each one was a Boon Death.

"Duck!" I yelled. We dove to the ground and the shots looked like they missed, but when we stood up we noticed that two of us were hit.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44—Hit

Thanks for the amazing reviews! Prepare for a sad chapter, though.

"Eli! Trixie!" Karina screamed. We ran to their sides and saw the marks left by the ghouls.

"Blakk!" I screamed. I found one last iota of energy and launched a wave of energy in his direction. He was already gone, though.

Karina, Luke, Emma, and Mark grabbed Guardian healers from nearby and fired them in MegaMorph.

The slugs surrounded Eli and Trixie in a ball of energy, but when it faded they didn't look any better.

The four of them fired every Boon Doc in the area at Eli and Trixie, but nothing happened.

"Jacob," Eli whispered.

I rushed to their sides. "Eli?"

His eyes opened. "You really are a Shane by blood," he told me.

"I know," I replied. Karina came over beside me and looked down on them.

"Blakk will pay for this day," she told him.

"Not yet," Trixie rasped. "His time will come, as will all of ours." We held onto their hands as the others kept firing Boon Docs.

Two hours later, though, they breathed their last breath.

"They're gone," Karina told me, closing their eyes.

When it really dawned on me I broke down crying. Emma sat down beside me and placed her hand on my shoulder. I turned and fell into her arms.

"I'm sorry," she told me.

I said nothing, crying on and on until I somehow fell asleep.

The next time I woke up I was in my old room at the Hideout. My slugs were gathered around me to keep me safe, and Speedy was on my head for some reason and Yang was next to him.

"I had the craziest dream," I muttered. They all began chirping at once as reality slammed into me like the SlugTerran Express.

I fell back against my pillows as tears continued to flow.

"They're really gone," I whispered.

There was a loud noise outside the door before Karina charged in.

"You're awake!" she said happily.

"Don't remind me," I grumbled, turning over to fall back asleep.

"Don't fall back asleep again!" she shouted.

"Why not?" I demanded. "The two people closest to me are dead. I think I deserve some extra rest."

"Jacob, you were unconscious for three days," she told me carefully, as if gauging my reaction.

I just shrugged like it was nothing and sat up.

"I know this is hard for you, but you need to face it," she told me. "Eli and Trixie are dead, and there's nothing you can do to change it now."

I broke down crying again and cried into her shoulder for ten minutes before the tears continued to flow. I wiped them away and stood up so that we could walk out.

"Jacob!" Emma said when she saw me. She ran up to us and tackled me in a hug.

"I missed you too," I said.

She smiled and punched my arm. "That's for passing out on my," she said before returning to her seat.

I walked over to the kitchen to get something to eat, and as I did so Burpy hopped up to me and chirped.

"I miss them too, bud," I told him. He nodded and hopped onto my shoulder next to Speedy.

"What're we gonna do?" I asked the others as I poured myself a cup of coffee.

"First we need to plan the…funeral," Kord told me. "Then we read their wills."

I took a deep breath and sighed. "Sure. Karina, I mean, Mom, can you organize the funeral?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said.

"'Mom'?" Mark asked.

Kord explained everything to the others as Mom and I began discussing the funeral arrangements.

"Whom should we invite?" she asked me. "They had a lot of friends."

"So we invite them all," I told her. "It's what they would've wanted."

She nodded and typed rapidly on her laptop.

"Where are they now?" I asked her.

"Storage room, base of the Hideout," she said. "I have several Frostcrawlers keeping them in a frozen state until we can properly bury them."

"Thank you," I replied.

She nodded and we continued, setting a time and date for the ceremony.

"I'll send invitations in a few minutes," she told me when she finished. She looked over the list, but frowned when she noticed something.

"Why is Luke's father on the list?" she asked me.

"I thought it would be nice to invite him," I explained.

She smiled and nodded. "Of course," she said.

As she readied the invitations I checked on the slugs.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked them. Most of them just sighed, but a few shrugged.

"It'll be alright," I assured them. I chatted with the slugs for about an hour before Kord walked up to me.

"I've got an idea to cheer these little guys up," he told me, pointing at Pronto. I knew enough of Kord's pranks to know Pronto was in trouble, but the slugs cheered up as Kord explained the plan.

"Ready?" I asked Speedy as I loaded him.

He nodded so I took careful aim and fired.

Speedy ricocheted around the room as I loaded and launched Stuntz. When they were in the right spots I tossed up Noodle and Slip for them to catch.

They did and, when in the right spot, threw the Floppers at Pronto's face, covering it in slime.

"Ah!" he screamed, falling out of his chair.

"Good job guys," I told the slugs.

"You stupid slugs!" Pronto screamed as he wiped off the slime. The slugs just laughed. We just smiled and sat down.

"Wanna do a practice duel?" Kord asked me, trying to cheer me up more.

"Sure," I replied, grabbing my blaster and mods.

"Let's do teams," the others said, grabbing their blasters as well.

We ended up splitting into two teams, the three adults and the four of us teens.

"Four versus three," Pronto said. "Not good odds…for them!" he screamed as we began firing at each other outside.

"You guys are good!" Karina admitted as we took shelter behind a few trees.

"Thanks!" I yelled back. I used a trick shot of Speedy to somehow shoot down all three of their slugs, but Kord used Bludgeon to take down the tree I was behind.

We kept dueling for several minutes. Slicer took down Pronto's Arachnet, Bubbles took out Stinky, Sand, Karina's Sand Angler, shot down Duster, and I had to dive out of the way and extinguish a flame on my sleeve that Saphira caused. I managed to use a fusion shot of Thorn and Tesla to make the other side take cover, but it wasn't long before they were shooting at us again.

Five minutes later we ran out of slugs.

"What do we do?" I asked the others as they fire their final slugs.

They were just about to suggest giving up when Eli and Trixie's slugs hopped up to us, telling us to use them.

We nodded and I loaded Stuntz, aiming and taking down several slugs in one fluid motion before returning to my side.

"Let's finish this, Burpy," I told the little Infernus. He nodded and I loaded him, launching him in MegaMorph.

He spun around and around the three adults, creating a fire-wall so strong that they had no choice but surrender.

"Looks like we've got a new Shane Gang," Kord commented as we went back inside.

"Thanks," I replied.

"You still need to finish your schooling," Karina reminded us.

We nodded and made sure we had all our slugs.

The next day went by slowly, but the day after was even slower.

It was the day of the funeral.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45—The Funeral

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* * *

The ceremony was held on the cavern floor next to the house, and over a hundred people showed up.

"Thank you for coming," I said every time somebody would arrive.

"I'm sorry for your loss," they'd always reply.

I'd nod and they would pay their respects to Eli and Trixie's gravestones.

At exactly noon we all sat in rows of chairs as Tobias went to the podium in front of us to speak.

"We are here to celebrate the lives of two wonderful people," he told us. "Eli and Trixie Shane did many things in their life to help SlugTerra, but they were taken from us too early."

He continued for ten minutes before leaving the podium for others to speak.

The first up there was John, Luke's father.

"Hello," he said uncomfortably. "The Shanes and I weren't on the best of terms when we were teenagers, but they were amazing people. Even though they had countless chances to arrest me, they gave me more chances than I deserved. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the Shanes were great people, the best." He walked away and another person took his place.

For the next hour people talked about them, and after Karina returned to her seat I finally stood up and walked to the podium.

"Hi," I began. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jacob Shane, the son of Eli and Trixie Shane. They adopted me roughly thirteen years ago, and since then I gave grown to love and admire them. They were great people, and I loved them more than anyone else. They were kind, gentle, loving, and everything else a parent should be and more."

At that point the tears began, but I kept going for several minutes until it became too difficult, when I returned to my seat.

"Good job out there," Emma told me, slipping her hand into mine as Trixie's sister walked to the podium.

As she spoke about them the tears gradually faded.

"Will you be okay?" Emma asked me, squeezing my hand lightly.

I took a shuddering breath and nodded slowly.

When Trixie's sister finished we all loaded our blasters and fired a Phosphoro as a salute to Eli and Trixie.

As over 100 Phosphoro slugs reached velocimorph overhead we watched and either gathered our slugs or released them back into the wild.

We then walked over to an area where food was laid out and ate dinner, although I actually barely ate anything.

"You should eat more," Karina told me. "You haven't been eating very much these past few days."

"I'll be fine," I assured her.

As we ate more people came by and gave us their condolences. A few hours later the last people left so we took care of everything from the ceremony and dinner.

"You guys should go home," I told my friends.

"They can spend the night here if they want," Karina told me.

They thanked her and went to empty rooms as Kord and Pronto went to their old rooms.

Burpy told me I should get some sleep so I went to my room.

That night I had nightmares the entire time. I watched Eli and Trixie die over and over, and there was nothing I could do to stop it each time. The next time I woke up, I was screaming and Emma was shaking me awake.

"Jake, it's just a dream!" she was yelling over and over. I looked around the room and saw that all my stuff was pushed back several feet, and my slugs were hiding in the corners.

"It was just a dream. Just a dream," I whispered to myself over and over. I was covered in sweat and couldn't stop shaking.

"It's okay," she assured me. I looked her in the eye and collapsed in her arms.

"I miss them so much," I cried as sobs racked my body.

"I know, I know," she murmured.

I cried for several more minutes before finally calming down.

"Why'd you come in here?" I eventually asked her.

"Your slugs woke me up and had me come in here to calm you down," she said tiredly. "I don't get why they couldn't get your mother."

I glared at my slugs as they smiled conspiratorially. "It's nearly impossible to wake her up, and if you do there's hell to pay," I explained. It's usually true, unless you have a good reason to wake her up.

She nodded and began to stand up, but I lightly grabbed her wrist.

"Please, don't leave," I requested. "Please."

She smiled and lay down next to me, although she was on top of the sheets.

"Thanks," I muttered before passing out.

I didn't have any more nightmares that night.

The next morning I was awoken by the click of a camera.

"I don't think so, guys," I told my slugs, snatching the camera from them before they could do anything. They did this a lot, pulling a prank on me during the night then taking a picture to preserve it forever.

I deleted the picture and made sure everyone was asleep before picking up a sleeping Emma and carrying her to her room.

"You're up early," Karina said as I made my way back to my room. She was in the main area, reading a book. She must've seen me emerge from Emma's room.

"It's not what you think it is," I said right away.

She crossed her arms. "Try me."

I explained the nightmares and Emma helping keep them away.

She softened up slightly. "Why didn't the slugs wake me up?" she asked me.

"Ask the slugs," I told her.

She chuckled and adjusted her position. "Are you feeling better today?"

I nodded and got myself a cup of coffee. It was going to be a long day.

It was the day we read their wills.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46—The Will

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* * *

We had the entire family go to the Hideout for the reading, and when they were, Eli and Trixie's lawyer began by reading Trixie's will.

It began by giving small mementos to family members and distant friends, and worked her way up. She left her Mecha, Boomer, to her oldest niece and my cousin, Rachel. She's a year younger than me.

At the end of the will it reached the rest of the Shane Gang, Karina, and me.

Pronto got a few things he wanted from her and his choice of one of her slugs, although he didn't take any. Kord got some more things and two slugs, but he didn't take any either. Karina got even more and three slugs, but she wouldn't take any.

"They'll always be Trixie's slugs," she explained. "It feels wrong to take them."

The final person was me.

"To my son, Jacob Taylor Shane, I leave the rest of my possessions and slugs," the lawyer read.

I smiled and waved at Trixie's slugs, which were sitting on the table.

"Looks like you guys are sticking with me," I told them. They mostly cheered, but a few were still sad.

After that we began on Eli's will. He didn't leave possessions to as many people, but there was one person I didn't expect to be on the paper.

"To John Jones," the lawyer said, "I leave one of my accelerators and my forgiveness."

Luke smiled. "I'll pass on the message," he told us.

I thanked him and we listened to the lawyer finish. Karina got every picture of her father, Will Shane, and the two of them in the house, and as with Trixie, I got everything else.

"Looks like you guys are sticking with me as well," I told the slugs. They nodded and Burpy jumped onto my shoulder.

"Thank you all for coming," I said as I handed people what they got from the wills.

"Looks like I don't have to stay at the University now that I've got my own place," I said when everyone but my friends, Karina, Kord, and Pronto had left.

"Which means I'll have the dorm all to myself," Luke said.

"You guys could stay here," I told them. "There's more than enough space for all of us."

"No thanks," they said. "Thanks for offering, though."

"Anytime," I told them. "The door's always open if you need a place to stay."

"Thanks," Luke said. "I need to get back to my dad," he added, holding his father's accelerator.

We nodded and he left.

"I hope we haven't missed much school," Mark commented.

"School has been cancelled since…it happened," Karina told us. "It's set to resume the day after tomorrow, though. I recommend you two go home and get some rest." Mark and Emma nodded and left as well.

"Are you going to stay at the University or here?" she asked me.

"I'm not sure," I said. "I'll probably say at the University, but you guys are welcome to stay here as long as you need," I told them. They nodded and thanked me for the offer before Kord and Pronto left.

"Are you staying here tonight?" I asked Karina.

"If you're staying, I'm staying," she told me.

"I guess we're staying," I said.

As she sat down on the couch I grabbed a book from my room and sat down in a chair to read it. I had read the book hundreds of times, but I was bored. It was a book about the art of Slugslinging, and was written by none other than Will Shane.

"What book are you reading?" Karina asked me.

"The Art of SlugSlinging," I replied, showing her the cover.

She nodded. "Good book," she commented.

I agreed and turned the page.

The next day I was bored so I sat at the workbench in the garage and worked on a double barrel mod for Luke's blaster. I barely managed to finish it before Karina had to drag me away to get some lunch. I'm still not sure whether to call her 'Mom' or 'Karina', but I'll probably just switch between them from time to time.

"What were you working on in there?" Mom asked me.

"Double barrel mod for Luke," I told her. "He's been asking me to build one for him for a while now. I just got around to working on it."

"That's good," she commented. We ate lunch and chatted a bit. She looked uncomfortable trying to make small talk, so I kept the conversation alive as long as possible, but soon ran out of ideas and the silence quickly became uncomfortable.

"Looks like neither of us are very good with conversations," I said after ten minutes.

"You probably get that from me," she said with a smile. "Your father was always able to keep a conversation alive, even if he had to make something up," she added.

"What was he like?" I asked her. "My father."

She pulled a picture out of her pocket and unfolded it to reveal Mom standing next to a man I knew was my father. We have the same eyes, same hair, and same set to our shoulders. Mom and I have the same noses and ears, but you'd have to look a lot closer to see the resemblance. That's probably why I never figured it out before.

"This was the last picture taken of your father and I," she told me. "I was six months pregnant at the time."

I grabbed the picture and looked at it for several minutes. As I moved to hand it back to her she shook her head.

"This way you can remember as well," she explained, smile on her face.

I nodded and slid the picture into my pocket.

"We should be getting back to the University," she told me.

"Do you think we'll have any problems with Blakk on the way?" I asked her as I strapped a suitcase onto Stryder's cargo grate.

"Only if he has a death wish," she replied. I grabbed my slugs and looked to the rest.

"I've left out enough food for a week," I told them. "I only have enough room for four of you guys to go with me. Who wants to go?"

They all jumped forward.

"Burpy, Bluster, Suds, and you," I said, pointing to Trixie's Sand Angler.

As they jumped into slug tubes, onto my shoulder, or in my backpack, I walked outside and climbed onto Stryder.

"Let's go," Mom said. We hit the throttle and went to the University.

"There's going to be a mandatory gathering in the auditorium after dinner to explain what happened," she told me.

I nodded and went to my dorm room, where Luke was waiting.

"I thought you were going to be living at your house for the rest of the year," he said when I walked in.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," I told him. I pulled out his double barrel mod and tossed it to him. "That's for you."

He caught and inspected it.

"Thanks. You didn't have to do this for me," he said.

"Consider it a birthday present," I told him. "I have no idea when it is."

"Yesterday," he said. "It was December 14."

"Whoa." I couldn't believe it was already December 15. It felt like only a month had gone by since school started. "Well, happy belated birthday."

"Thanks," he replied. "When's your birthday?"

"Not until May 15," I said.

He nodded and thanked me for the mod. "Ready for the assembly after dinner?"

I shrugged. "I just hope they don't call me up to the stage," I replied. I showed him how the mod can easily attached to his belt for quick access before giving a tour to the four new slugs I brought with me.

We hung around the room and finished any last-minute homework before we had to get dinner.

"How's your guys' day been?" Mark asked us when we caught up with him.

"It's been good," we replied.

We sat down at our usual table and quickly devoured our food. I'm lucky to have a very high metabolism, because they have amazing food.

When we were done, we went to the auditorium. I was directed to sit in the front row with Mom, Kord and Pronto, and managed to drag my friends along, so they were sitting on one side of me with Mom on the other.

Fifteen minutes later everybody was seated so Tobias walked up to the podium.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47—Assembly

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"Approximately one week ago, disaster struck SlugTerra," he began. "About a week ago, Eli and Trixie Shane, two of the original founders of this University, passed away."

He continued his speech for twenty minutes before having a moment of silence.

When it was over he was right about to dismiss us when the lights began flickering rapidly and the speakers began spitting out static.

"What's with this?" I muttered.

"Looks like the final gifted has finally been revealed," Mark said. We began looking around the room for a pair of glowing eyes, but everyone else was looking around as we were.

Eventually, though, I saw somebody sitting completely still, eyes shut. The person looked like she was trying to calm down. What confused me, though, was who the person was.

Vinyl Rose isn't even our age, so how could she be gifted?

Mark noticed as well. "There must be an age rang for the gifted," he commented.

I nodded and, when Tobias dismissed us all, went to Vinyl's side.

"Calm down!" I told her. "Your emotions are causing this!"

She opened her eyes and they were glowing red. "How?" she demanded. "I'm not angry or afraid!"

I laid a hand on her shoulder and began gently exerting my own power, somehow suppressing hers. Slowly, but surely, she managed to bring her powers under control.

"Thanks, Shane," she muttered, standing up. Angel looked a bit shaken by the change in events.

"You should train with us," I told her.

"I'll be fine," she replied. "How do you think I was able to do so much with my computer when your aunt hacked me?"

"You've had these powers for a while?" I demanded.

"Yeah, I have," she snapped.

"Please, join our group," I told her. "We can teach you more about your powers, like how to control them at all times."

"No thanks," she said.

I grabbed her wrist as she walked by. "If you ever change your mind, we'll be there for you."

She nodded and I released her so that she would walk out.

"So?" Emma asked. "Is she with us or isn't she?"

I lowered my head. "She wouldn't join us," I told them.

"Why not?" she demanded. "She's one of us, right?"

"People must choose their own path," Mom said. "Ms. Rose has chosen her path. Let's hope it doesn't lead to a darker one."

I nodded and we left the auditorium.

Ya know who was waiting for us, or should I say 'me'?

Rob.

"Aw, poor little Jake," he laughed when we emerged. "Now he has no family at all."

"Jake, be the better person," Emma told me as I clenched my fists.

"Yeah, let the girl talk you out of a fight. You don't even deserve the name 'Shane'."

That did it.

"You wanna fight? Bring. It. On," I sneered. I made sure the others left as Rob got ready.

"Bring it on, Small Stuff," he laughed.

I let my powers leak a bit and punched Rob in the chest, launching him back a dozen feet. As he registered my strength I threw another punch.

He dove out of the way and tried to tackle me, but I used his momentum to throw him over my shoulder. He hit the ground as I walked away to prevent myself from seriously hurting him.

"What's wrong?" he yelled. "Too much a coward to fight someone?"

I gritted my teeth and turned around as people formed a circle to watch.

He sneered at me and threw a punch, but I caught it and easily used it to push him to the ground.

"Never insult me, or the name of 'Shane' again," I told him before walking away.

I heard cursing and scrambling behind me and was about to turn and face him when Saphira flew between us, creating a wall of flam.

"That's enough!" Mom shouted. "Both of you, return to your dorms. NOW!"

I nodded and walked away, careful not to push her. She can be a dangerous force when pissed off, which she was at the time.

As I walked away my friends caught up with me.

"What was that about?" Luke asked me. "I thought you didn't let that guy get to you."

"That guy needed someone to put him in his place," I told them.

"It didn't mean you had to throw the first punch," Mom told me. "You should've let him throw the first punch. Always let the other person throw the first punch.

There wasn't much anger in her voice, mainly disappointment.

"I don't want to see you fighting again, even if the person deserves it," she told me.

I looked at me feet. "Okay."

She placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey," she said. "I'm not mad at you. I just don't want you getting hurt or in trouble."

I nodded and looked her in the eye.

She smiled and released my shoulder to go to her office to take care of something.

We wandered around campus for a few minutes before returning to our dorm rooms.

"Ready for school tomorrow?" Luke asked me when we got back to the room.

"Yep," I replied as I fiddled with my blaster to increase its power output. My goal was to make sure I don't have to use as much energy to MegaMorph slugs. I was able to increase the energy capabilities by quite a bit before going to bed.

Things gradually returned to normal over the next two months. Mark had somehow found an Enigmo slug on a slug hunt, but he almost had to fight a couple kids for it before we split them up. He named the slug Looper. Luke got a Tazerling he calls Shock, and Emma got her own Negashade that she calls Shadow. Yang was glad to have another Negashade in the gang. He was even happier when he discovered Shadow's a girl.

In my advanced Blaster-Smithing class the class learned that we each have to create a final project each year. If it is good enough, we won't have to do another one every year.

"Have you decided what you will be doing for your project?" the teacher asked me.

"I think so," I replied, pulling out a sketch I had been working on.

He looked at it and raised his eyebrows doubtfully. "You truly think you can pull this off?" he asked me.

I nodded.

"You are welcome to use the University's supplies and tools," he told me.

"Thank you."

As days passed by worked gradually progressed. It came to a screeching halt as I tried to secure a recently invented material, carbon fiber. It way stronger than most metals, but more expensive to produce as well. I had to write a special request to the head of the Blaster-Smithing Department for enough carbon fiber for what I need it for.

When I finally received it I continued with my project, finishing it the day before my birthday, a month before the end-of-year trip.

I gave it to the teacher and when he graded it and returned it to me I brought it to Mom to show her.

"This was my final project," I told her, holding out the finished result.

"It's…" she gasped.

"A fusion blaster," I confirmed. "Just like Shanai's used to be."


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48—Fusion Blaster

* * *

Thanks for the reviews! The idea for this blaster is kinda a tribute to the Unbeatable Master. I was always interested by the blaster, and thought it would be cool to include it in my Fanfic. Enjoy!

* * *

"What do you think?" I asked her. "I was always interested by the concept of a blaster like Shanai's before she passed."

She smiled and lifted the staff blaster from my hands. "It's amazing," she admitted, spinning it around. "Does it work?"

I grinned and snatched the staff. I pressed a small switch and split the blaster in two. I loaded Yang and Medic and aimed at a target. I was able to use a targeting system I downloaded onto my Glasses to make sure it was accurate before pressing a button to launch both slugs. The fusion shot worked, blowing the target to pieces.

"Ta-daaaaa!" I announced, reconnecting the two halves. I used the carbon fiber rods I acquired for the actual staff part, reducing the weight big-time.

I turned to Mom, but she seemed lost in thought so I twirled my staff around a bit.

"What grade did you get?" she asked me eventually.

"I don't know. The teacher reveals grades tomorrow.

The next day my grade was revealed to be a 95. Five points were taken off because I hadn't painted my planned design on the blaster ends. It's not incredibly easy to paint on carbon fiber, so I would just paint on the metal blaster ends. Since we wouldn't be doing anything else in class I worked on the paint job until it was finally finished.

The shaft was carbon fiber black, and the two ends were dark blue with a Shane star painted on the middle of each fusion core. I even added the words '_IN HONOR OF THE UNBEATABLE MASTER_' in small, orderly letters around the fusion core at the top end.

"Your son is very gifted with blasters," the teacher told Mom at a parent-teacher conference he requested. "He could make a fortune selling blasters if he wishes.

"Thank you," she replied. "He once tried to make his own blaster when he was young. It took him a month to grow back his eyebrows."

As the teacher chuckled I glared at Mom. I had actually forgotten about the blaster. I must admit, the explosion was fantastic.

"What's this you put here?" Mom asked me as we went home for the weekend.

I read the inscription to her and watched as she reminisced. I forgot she told me once that she was trained by the Unbeatable Master, Shanai.

"What do you think about it?" I asked her.

She looked at me and smiled. "I love it," she replied.

I smiled back as we pulled into the garage. It was strangely silent, so I was on my guard. Mom just laughed and flung open the door to reveal my friends, Kord, and Pronto standing in the middle of the room.

"Happy Birthday!" they screamed.

We walked in and Kord stepped aside to revealed a giant birthday cake.

"Who set this up?" I demanded.

Everyone pointed to one person, or should I say, slug.

"Burpy, you are a very sneaky slug," I told him. He just smiled and fist-bumped Speedy, his partner-in-crime.

"What's with the new blaster?" Pronto asked me.

We went silent.

"It's my final project for a class," I told him. "It's a fusion blaster."

"Oh," Pronto said simply before stuffing his face with food.

Soon slugs began requesting I launch them out of it.

"One at a time, guys," I told the slugs.

We went outside and I began firing slugs. I even got into a duel with Kord, but the staff was powerful enough that I could just use it as a bat, hitting Armashelts into the air behind me. I managed to learn how to accurately spin the staff while launching slugs, but it's mainly for looks.

That night everyone left and Mom gave me another picture. It was of a younger Mom with a small baby in her arms.

"That was taken a few hours after you were born," she told me.

"Thanks," I replied. over the weekend I received gifts in the mail and opened them to mainly reveal money.

Sunday night we returned to the University and things went back to normal.

Over the next two weeks in Slinging Research, we developed a guard schedule and Mom taught us various survival skills, like how to start a fire without slugs or any common materials.

The day before we left on the trip Mom had her class meet together after dinner to finish putting together our backpacks for the trip. Everyone needed to carry them. I loaded my bag with more stuff than everyone else and even went as far as to include a large area for my slugs, allowing me to double the number of slugs I could take.

"Why are you carrying so much extra?" one of my classmates asked me.

"Extra workout," I lied randomly. "Helps tone the muscles."

He narrowed his eyes but continued packing his bag until we were all ready.

"Tomorrow, we leave at eight in the morning," Mom told us when we were finished.

We all nodded and retreated to our dorms.

"Ready for tomorrow?" Luke asked me when I got back. He also had an overstuffed bag.

"Yeah," I replied. "You?"

"Same."

"How long do you think the trip will last?" I asked him.

"At least five days if all goes well," he said. "If things go wrong, I don't know."

I agreed and made sure all my gear was ready before climbing into bed and falling asleep, twenty slugs scattered around my body. I don't know why, but slugs like to sleep on me.

The next day we had our alarms set early, but for some reason Mom decided to fire her Slyren to wake us up at five in the morning. I shot it out of the air with Speedy before two notes could be sung.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Rise n' shin," she told us. "It's always best to get an early start on the day."

We grumbled and turned over in our beds, but that changed when she fired to Aquabeek at us.

When the water hit us we jumped out of bed and shivered as cold outside air hit us.

"Why did you have to wake us up so early?" I demanded as I fired Burpy to dry the room.

She just smiled and had us get ready to go before leading us out.

"Why are you bringing that thing?" Luke asked me as I slid my fusion blaster into a custom holster on my backpack.

"You can never be to careful," I told him. "Besides, it's fun using it," I added as I pulled on my beanie.

As we walked to the cafeteria to eat she added, "just be glad you weren't the first I woke up."

I was about to ask what she meant when we saw Mark and Emma.

"We still have over two hours before we need to leave," Mark groaned as we ate.

"Why did you only wake us up?" Emma asked.

"You four are the only ones that wouldn't try to take me down," Mom replied.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I grumbled. She just rolled her eyes.

Over the next two hours more people arrived at the edge of campus, where we were waiting on our Mechas.

At eight o'clock exactly everyone was there so we moved into position and started off.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49—End-Of-Year Trip

Thanks for the reviews!

There were almost enough students in our class to form a complete circle around everyone else, so if anything happens, they'd be well protected.

"North end, checking in," Mom said from the rear of the pack.

"All's normal at the south," I said.

"West is all good."

"Same to the east."

"Good," Mom told us. "Keep your eyes out."

We continued for four hours before we reached the edge of Dark Periphery Cavern, when we stopped for lunch.

"When we enter the cavern, be sure to remain silent," the professors told us.

"Ms. Shane will gain us passage through the cavern," Kord told everyone. "Make sure you don't, in any way, anger them. Only speak when told to unless you want to be running from an army of Shadow Clan."

We all nodded and ate lunch.

"Good luck," I told Mom as we packed up again.

"Thanks," she replied with a smiled. We continued again and Mom set a Shadow Talker on her head to begin talking to the Shadow Clan King.

"What do you want here?" it hissed.

"We seek safe passage through the cavern, my lord," she requested. "We do not mean harm. We merely wish to reach our destination safely."

The king noticed me watching. "The child understands us," he hissed.

"He is one of the five gifted," she explained. "He is able to understand you without a Shadow Talker."

He pointed to me. "Bring him to me," the king hissed.

"Jake, come over here," Mom told me,

I rode over to them and faced the kind. "It's an honor to meet you," I said in his language.

"The honor is mine," he replied. "You and your group may pass, but first you must give me a demonstration of you power."

I raised my eyebrows but loaded and launched Speedy in MegaMorph.

"Thank you. Have a safe journey," he told me before disappearing.

"Let's continue," Mom told the group when we returned.

As we slowly passed through the cavern I found Speedy and returned him to my shoulder.

"Good job, bud," I told him.

"Who knew you carry so much influence with the Shadow Clan?" Emma asked me.

I shrugged as we continued south.

"How much longer until we reach the cavern?" I asked Mom as we stopped for dinner.

"We should enter the cavern at approximately seven in the morning tomorrow," she explained. The entrance is at the far end of Dark Periphery Cavern, so it'll take a while to navigate our way there.

I nodded and finished my dinner. We continued on our way, but stopped for the night two hours later so that we didn't tire ourselves out too much.

"Why is it you're able to understand the Shadow Clan?" Emma asked me as the four of us laid out our blankets next to each other.

"No idea," I replied before a Shadow Clan member appeared in front of us.

"Where is the fifth Gifted?" it asked. It was the one that guarded the portal.

"I'll bring Vinyl over here," Emma told us when I translated for the others. Vinyl is part of the Slug Research class since they don't have a Chemistry Research class like these.

She took off and came back a second later with Vinyl, who was struggling to get free. She froze when she saw the Shadow Clan member, though.

"Why do you want all five of us?" I asked it.

"I bring you a message from our king," it hissed. I was busy translating this the entire time. "He is heartened to see the five Gifted again.."

"What does he know about us?" I demanded.

"He wishes me to give you these," he told us, handing each of us amulets of some sort. Emma and Vinyl got necklaces, Luke and Mark received bracelets and I got an odd black ring. They were all made from a strange black metal.

"These amulets increase your power and give you greater control," it explained. "Use them wisely."

After that he vanished.

"Um, thanks?" I said hesitantly.

"Aw," Emma began. "It gave Jake a ring."

I glared at her and put the ring on a small chain I found. I'd have to find a better one later, but this is all I can do for now.

"See ya guys later," Vinyl told us, walking over to an area where she was all by herself.

"Hey, do you wanna stay over here?" Emma asked. "You don't have to be alone."

She shrugged. "I'm food over here," she told us before laying out her blanket and falling asleep.

Unfortunately, somebody decided to mess with us in our sleep, because when we woke up we were hanging upside down from the tree.

"Hey!" Luke yelled. We struggled, but there was a combination of Lariat goo and Arachnet webbing holding us up in the tree. Fortunately I had Slicer with me, so I had him get ready as I felt around my arms.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked me.

"I placed several magnets inside my fusion blaster that work with a set of magnets I have inside my right glove," I explained. "I just don't remember where the switch is for them."

"Nice," she muttered. I rolled my eyes and managed to get myself so that I was sitting on the branch.

"How do I do this…" I mumbled as I tried different things. I eventually figured out that I activate it by forming a fist.

A second later I heard a whistling as my staff raced up at me, waking up everyone else.

I deftly caught it and launched Stinger and Spinner down below us. They formed a large net so that I could use a knife concealed in my blaster to cut my cord and cut the rest, sending each person to the ground one-by-one.

"Who did that?" I demanded as people began laughing at us. I jumped from the branch and landed on the net, cutting it so that I would land on the ground easily.

"This is not a laughing matter," Mom shouted. "If you did this, step forward now. If not, the punishment will be more severe with every passing day."

Nobody moved, but I already suspected Vinyl. She was the only one still smiling.

"Let's get moving," Mom said.

We ate a quick lunch and soon were back on the move.

"How much longer until we arrive?" somebody groaned after only an hour or two.

I stopped at the lead. "We're here," I told them, pointing to an arch filled with black smoke only a Negashade could produce.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50—We're Here

Thanks for the reviews! Expect someone to appear 'from the dead' this chapter.

"How should we get rid of the smoke?" I asked the professors.

"We'll have to try Tormatos, see if that works," Kord said.

All the teachers and a couple students fired Tormatos at the smoke. The resulting gale made us hold on for dear life, but was enough to make the smoke disappear.

"My class! Secure the cavern!" Mom yelled. We formed up and walked into the cavern, where we got a big surprise.

"Whoa," I gasped as we entered the cavern. It looked like paradise. There was a lake at one end of the large cavern, a large jungle at one edge, and even some cliff-side caves. We were even more surprised when we saw a couple houses at the edge of the forest.

"We'll check out the houses," Mom told the teachers. She had half her class follow her, blasters drawn, as we approached.

Right before we reached the first house I heard the click of an unfriendly blaster pointed at me.

"You don't want to do that," I said. I jumped off Stryder's back and dodged a shot before pulling out my staff to block a…staff? I couldn't think about it anymore as the attacker and I fought back and forth.

"Enough!" Mom yelled, launching Saphira between us.

"I recognize that voice, and the slug as well," the attacker said. she was actually a very old woman.

"I know you do," Mom replied, walking toward her. They stood facing each other for several minutes.

"It has been a long time," the woman said.

"I can't believe you're alive," Mom replied. "We all thought you were dead."

"Exactly."

I cleared my throat and they looked at me.

"Oh, sorry," the woman said, pulling back her hood to reveal a lot of white hair. "I am Shanai."

My jaw dropped. "As in, Shanai the Unbeatable Master?" I gasped.

She nodded and looked at Mom.

"Your son?" Shanai asked.

"How'd you figure it out?" Mom asked her after she dismissed the rest of the students except for Emma and I.

"His passion for slinging and slugs themselves," she said.

"That comes from my brother and Trixie raising him," she replied.

"What happened to Jacob?" Shanai asked. "Did he leave you?"

"Um, Jacob?" I asked.

"Your father's first name," Mom explained. "I named him after you." She turned to Shanai and explained what happened since she left last.

"I am truly sorry about the losses you have gone through," she told us.

"It's not your fault," I replied. she noticed my staff and snatched it from my hands.

"Where did you get this blaster?" she whispered. It looks a lot like hers, so I was satisfied with my good work.

"I built it," I replied, allowing her to examine it.

"It's got a bit of weight to it," she told me, spinning it around. I didn't get how it could weigh much, but I didn't mention it.

I shrugged as she noticed the dedication I painted on it.

"Thank you," she said, handing the staff back to me.

I nodded and spun it around a bit.

"Where's Yang?" Mom asked her when we saw her albino Boon Doc, Ping.

My own Yang perked up on my head and looked at Ping. He seemed confused for a bit before something clicked in his head. He jumped over to Ping and they began chirping as fast as they could.

"Do you know each other?" I asked the slugs.

"Ah, it has been a long time, yang," Shanai said.

"Wait, you were _Shanai_'s slug?" I demanded.

"Yeah, I was," Yang replied.

"Yang, would you like to stay with young Jacob here?" Shanai asked him. Yang nodded hesitantly and hopped back over to me.

"Who's in the other house?" Mom asked her as the other students entered the forest.

Shanai just smiled and launched Ping through an open window of the second house.

"Alright, alright," a grumpy voice yelled from inside the house as he opened the door to reveal an old man with a red hook instead of a hand.

"Jacob, allow me to introduce you to Red Hook, the best Blaster-Smith there ever was," Shanai told me.

"Why are there so many people here?" Red Hook demanded. "We're supposed to be retired.

"Hook, stop scaring everyone off," she told him.

Mom called Kord to go to our location as we entered Red Hook's house. Kord brought Luke and Mark with him.

"How are you still alive?" Mom demanded when we were all seated.

"Do you know how old we've been alive?" Hook asked us.

"One hundred and fifteen years old," Shanai finished.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

Hook grunted and coughed as his eyes turned red to match his hook.

"You're gifted?" Emma gasped.


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 51—Gifted?

Thanks for the reviews!

"We both are," Shanai told me as her eyes glowed a faint green. "We are the last two members of the previous gifted generation. When it was our time to leave we came here. This place is special to the gifted. It's where the first of us received and discovered their powers."

"What are our powers?" Emma asked Shanai respectfully.

"Which gift do you have?" Hook asked her.

"Speed," she replied.

"You have the ability to run at great speeds," Shanai stated.

"Yeah, but what else?" Emma pleaded. "Jake has the gift of power but he understands the Shadow Clan and even speaks their language.

"There are secondary gifts you have not learned of," Hook told us. "One of the secondary gifts is the ability to understand any language within a heartbeat."

"What are the others?" I asked.

"Ability to see in any condition, hear over long distances, the ability to sense lies, and to track any living thing," Hook explained grumpily. "Those are the Second Gifts."

"Cool," Emma said. "I wonder which one I have/"

"The gifts appear gradually, so don't be surprised if it takes you a while to discover them."

Mom nodded and had us leave them so that we could continue searching the cavern.

"Continue the scan of the cavern," Kord told Luke as Mom sent Emma and I on a security patrol.

"Where're you going?" I asked Mar as we set off through the jungle.

"I need to catalog every slug species here," he explained.

We nodded and continued on our patrol. We occasionally encountered a slug hound, but they were always docile for some reason..

The amazing part, though, was the slugs. There must have been hundreds, maybe even thousands, of slugs there. You name an extremely rare slug, and it was there. Crystalid slugs played with Negashades, Infernus slugs hopped around with Forgesmelters, and we even saw a few dozen Enigmos hopping around.

"This place is amazing," Emma said as we saw a Toxis slug hop around on a patch of dirt.

"Agreed," I added as I waved at an Infernus that Burpy was also waving at. I thought there were only two Infernus slugs, Burpy and Saphira, but I was clearly wrong.

"The Slug Research class is gonna have their hands full recording all these slugs," Emma commented.

I nodded and we continued patrolling. When we reached the lake there were countless water slugs swimming, and we saw some kids collecting slugs for their own arsenals.

"Hey!" Emma yelled, launching Bruiser at them.

"What's wrong with you?" I demanded as we approached them on our Mechas.

"These slugs need to stay here. If you remove them, it was draw more slingers here," Emma told them.

"So? They're just slugs," one of them said.

"Just slugs?" all my slugs chirped at once.

"They're more than slugs," I told them. "They're our friends, as close as family."

"Whatever," one of them said. They threw the Enigmos to the ground and in the time it took Emma to catch the slugs the kids were gone.

Over the next two days we took up posts at the entrance, which was covered in smoke again, as people finished their research.

The final day the professors gave us a big surprise.

"Due to your solid dedication over the course of this trip, we have arranged a little gift for you," Kord announced. I seriously doubted the 'little' part. Kord has never done things 'little'.

"Well? What is it?" various kids demanded.

"As thanks for your high level of dedication, we have decided to give you the entire day off," Mom told us. "The teachers will take over for security."

We all cheered and dispersed around the cavern to relax and have fun.

"What're you gonna do?" Emma asked me.

I pointed to the caves. "I wanna check out those caves," I told her.

"Do you want company on your trip?" she asked me, bumping into my side.

I bumped her back. "Sure, but you'll need an Arachnet slug," I told her, holding out Spinner for her to use.

We rode our Mechas over to the cliff and stopped them.

"Attach this to your blaster," I told her, holding out my flashlight mod.

"What about you?" she asked me.

I pressed a button and the blasters on my staff lit up. "The materials have Lumino Crystal ground into them," I explained. "A slight electrical current makes it light up."

"Cool," she replied. she attached the mod to her blaster and we fired the Arachnets in MegaMorph so that a super-strong cord stretched from ceiling to ground.

We grabbed onto the cord and climbed, using our feet against the wall to go faster.

At the first cave we turned on our lights and found a couple making out.

"Find your own cave," the guy growled.

We rolled our eyes and swung over to the cave next door.

We walked around in it and explored it before moving on.

We gradually moved up the wall, and halfway up Mom called me.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded when I accepted the call.

I walked to the edge of the cave and looked down to see her staring at me from the entrance to the cavern. She was slowly shaking her head.

"Exploring the caves," I replied.

"What's going on?" Emma asked, walking up to me.

"My mom wanted to know what I'm doing," I replied.

"You sure you're just exploring?" Mom asked me. I watched her raise her eyebrows.

"Yeah, that's all I'm doing," I told her.

"Well, be careful," she told me, turning back to the entrance.

"We will," I replied, ending the call.

We continued up until we reached the uppermost cave, only three feet from the ceiling of the cavern.

"Look at the view,:" I said, looking down. We could look over the entire cavern.

"It's amazing," she said.

we sat on the edge of the cave and looked down at the people, who were as small as ants to us.

"This must be really high up," I commented.

"Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!" she screamed, jumping and sliding down her line.

I grabbed my slugs and followed suit, thankful for the fingerless gloves.

She stayed ahead of me, though, so I did the dumbest thing ever.

I let go of the rope.

I dove past Emma and heard Mom and other people scream my name. I calmly reached for Suds, but realized I left him at the Hideout.

I reached for the rope, but it was too far away.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52—Falling

Thanks for the reviews!

"I'm an idiot," I told myself as the ground approached. My powers took over, creating a bubble of energy around me before I hit the ground.

The ground became a small crater around me as I lay on the ground.

"Jacob, say something," Mom told me, rushing to my side.

"Owwww," I groaned. The sudden deceleration hurt a lot.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Emma demanded when she hit the ground.

"I win," I told her with a cocky smile.

"Yeah, and you almost got killed in the process," Mom and Emma snapped.

"I didn't think ahead," I said. "I though I had Suds with me, but I didn't."

"Next time, think ahead," Emma said, punching my arm.

"How are you still alive?" kids asked me.

"I got lucky, grabbed the rope before I hit the ground," I lied. My friends and Mom knew the truth, but the rest were oblivious.

"From now on, nobody enters the caves," Kord announced.

"You might want to check the caves for people," I told them.

"I'm pretty sure your plummet to almost certain death got everybody out of the caves," Emma told me.

"Good point," I said.

"Let's get back to relaxing," Kord told all the students.

I got up and as everyone else went to the lake I walked to the two houses.

"Who is it?" Hook demanded when I knocked on his door. He opened the door and grunted when he saw me. "It's the suicidal one," he said to himself.

"I didn't try to kill myself," I told him. "I did it to win a race, and I did."

"What do you want?" he demanded.

I bowed my head respectfully. "I would be honored if you taught me as much about blasters as you can in the remaining time I have here."

He narrowed his eyes at me and handed me a thick book. "This will teach you all I could in a month," he told me.

Before I could thank him he slammed the door, so I put the book in my bag and went to the lake to relax.

Over the rest of the day we ran around and swam in the pool. Emma got into a swimming race with an Aquabeek race and won. The slug wasn't happy about it, but got over it.

At the end of the day we ate dinner and got ready to leave very early the next morning.

"Let's get going!" Kord shouted around four in the morning.

We climbed onto our Mechas and left, although we said goodbye to Red Hook and Shanai before leaving the cavern.

"Everybody stay together," Mom told us as we passed through Shadow Clan territory. Numerous Shadow Clan members were following us, so people were on edge.

Less than halfway through the cavern I saw a familiar person ahead of us, aiming a Boon Death at me.

Blakk.

"Blakk!" I yelled, loading Yang and charging forward. Blakk fired his slug, but I dodged it. The slug was enough to get the Shadow Clan to charge, so everybody ran to the exit as I chased Blakk.

"You're gonna pay for what you did!" I yelled. I transformed my Mecha to dirt bike mode and fired a few slugs at him as we went around the cavern. Every time I managed to corner him he managed to get away. After fifteen minutes of this I got an alert that everyone else was out of the cavern, but I kept chasing him.

Another ten minutes later I truly cornered him. He frowned slightly but fired a rapid series of Harmashelts. I pushed them back and slid on my ring. My power expanded exponentially as I ran at him, tackling him from his Mecha. I punched him over and over, but eventually a Shadow Clan member stopped me right before I would've killed him.

"This man does not deserve the mercy of death," the creature told me.

I frowned but decided not to make an enemy of the Shadow Clan. I climbed onto my Mecha and pulled on my helmet before transforming it into crotchrocket form.

I easily caught up with the others, but Mom questioned me about the vehicle. When she found out Kord built it, she yelled at him as I moved to the head of the group and we continued on our way to the University, hoping to avoid any more problems.

We eventually reached the University late that night.

"It's good to be back," I sighed as Luke and I walked into our dorm.

"Yeah," he agreed. We set our bags down and passed out on top of our beds.

The next day we were glad to be back in classes, but during lunch we got another surprise.

The University is holding an end-of-year dance.

"When is it?" I asked Emma, who informed us of it.

"One week from now, the day before we move out," she replied.

We spent the next week talking about it. I was going with Emma and Luke and Mark were going with girls in their classes.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Mom asked me the day before the dance, on a Saturday. I had my suit ready and Emma found suits for the slugs. Don't ask me how she found them. I don't know.

"Yep," I replied. I made sure all my clothes were ready before placing everything in a garment bag so that I could go back to the University.

The next day, I was a bit nervous. It was my first dance, unless you count me dancing around the Hideout with Trixie as a five-year-old.


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53—The Dance

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"Yes, Speedy, you have to wear the suit," I told him as I tightened my tie. Yang looked cool in his slug-suit, but Speedy didn't want to wear his.

"But I'll look like an idiot," he told me.

"You'll look nicer than any slug there," I assured him. He grumbled but allowed me to slide the one-piece suit over his head.

"It itches," he complained.

"All suits itch," I explained. He frowned but got over it.

"How do I look?" I asked Speedy when I was done.

"The hat," he said immediately, pointing to my head.

"It's my thing," I replied. "Everyone has a thing."

"Too bad. If I have to dress up, the hat stays here," he told me.

It was my turn to complain, but I took off the hat. My hair sprang up, so it took me ten more minutes to make it presentable.

"We should get going," Luke told me when we were both ready.

We grabbed our blasters (habit) and walked out. People carry their blasters everywhere, so we wouldn't stick out.

We walked outside and waited next to Fandango Hall for our dates to emerge.

"Whaddya think?" Emma asked as she and her roommate, Luke's date, emerged. I never noticed the roommate, though, due to the stunning beauty in front of me.

Emma was wearing a yellow dress that was a bright contrast to my deep blue suit. Her hair hung in ringlets around her face, and her eyes glittered from excitement. Even Bruiser and Slimer were in suits.

"Y-y-you look…" I began. I was speechless.

"Thanks," she replied, blushing. "You look nice, too."

I smiled and we walked to the Arena once Mark arrived with his date. They changed the Arena especially for the dance.

At the entrance there were opportunities for pictures, so Emma dragged me over and we stood in front of the cameras.

"Go on, hold her hand," the photographer encouraged us. I smiled and slipped my hand into hers. Her smile widened when the picture was taken. We didn't remove hands as we walked into the arena.

"This is amazing," I said when we saw everything. The theme was silver and gold, so everything was silver or gold colored, and everything was covered in silver and gold glitter.

"Totally," she agreed.

We walked around the Arena for a couple minutes before the DJ played a song I know she loves.

"Looks like they're playing our song," I commented.

"We have a song?" she gasped.

"We do now," I replied. We went out onto the dance floor for several songs before I needed a breather.

A few hours later, right before midnight, we all gathered together to watch fireworks go off.

As the first Phosphoros were launched I turned Emma's face towards me and kissed her gently as the slugs reached MegaMorph. Talk about 'fireworks'!

"What's up guys!" we heard an all-too-familiar voice yell, breaking up the kiss.

I turned and saw Rob holding a bottle in a brown paper bag aloft.

"Oh my," Emma commented.

"Looks like he's drunk," I added.

She nodded and I kissed her again as the fireworks display continued and Rob was removed by teachers.

That was the best ending to a school year I could imagine.

"I really liked tonight," I said as we walked back to her dorm.

"Will I see you again over the summer?" she asked me.

I looked her in the eye. "Of course," I told her.

She smiled ad I kissed her again before she entered Fandango Hall.

"How was your night?" I asked Luke as we entered our dorm at the same time.

"Not bad. I saw you with Emma. 'Bout took you two long enough."

I just rolled my eyes and changed into pajamas, taking care of my dress clothes. I easily removed the slugs' suits.

Needless to say, I slept with a smile that night.

The next day, though, we moved out.


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54—Move Out Day

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The next day we were up pretty late, but still had plenty of time to finish packing and load them onto our Mechas. Mom helped me move out.

"Will we see each other over the summer?" Mark asked the rest of us as we gathered together.

"Of course we will," Emma said, squeezing my hand. "We're friends forever."

We all smiled and nodded, saying goodbye until we met again.

"Ready to go?" Mom asked me.

I climbed on Stryder's back and said, "yes", already impatient for the next school year to begin.

We rode home, unpacked everything, and were just getting settled when Emma sent me a message saying she was all done.

"I'll be back sometime tonight," I told Mom, grabbing my helmet and blaster. I drove Stryder in crotchrocket for to Quiet Lawn Cavern.

That day Emma and I walked around the cavern, hand-in-hand, talking about things we'd miss from school, like the competitions and food, and things we wouldn't miss, such as Rob and homework.

Every day afterwards got better and better. The four of us met every day and talked. We dueled sometimes but most of the time Luke or I would win, mainly me.

A month into summer break we learned that Blakk had been arrested and placed in a top-secret prison only about five people know the location of, and the four of us helped the old Shane Gang whenever they let us.

Midway through the summer was the first time I told Emma I love her, and she almost blew my eardrums when she squealed and said the same thing to me. Ever since then, things grew calm. I occasionally got nightmares, but Mom was always able to calm me down. I wasn't sure if she used a Hypnogrif slug or not, but she always did the job.

**THE END** (for now…)

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**A Note from the Author:**

**Hey, guys! Well, it's been really fun writing this Fanfic, but the time has come to finish it.**

**I would like to thank the following people for lending me their OCs:**

**Aist Elixie Fan Shane (Karina Shane), Hills-to-Sky (Kaiya Skye), Vinyl Rose (Vinyl Rose), PLAINAWESOME (Leon Blakk).**

**p.s. I plan on writing a sequel, but need ideas for the plotline. If you have an idea, just post it in the review box below. Thanks!**


	55. Chapter 55

Hello, everyone. I have good news! I finally came out with a second SlugTerra University book! Yay! This new book is known as SlugTerra University Book Two.


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